By JC REINDL, New Britain Herald staff writer
PLAINVILLE --One of the town’s chief welcomers will leave for Australia next summer.
Chamber of Commerce employee Sara Chorzempa was awarded a scholarship by the Southington Rotary Club last Saturday to study abroad. Because her desk is located directly inside the front door of the Chamber of Commerce, Chorzempa is often the first person visitors meet when stopping in town for advice or directions. She is responsible for supporting community functions, handling phone calls, and answering questions from whomever wanders into the office.
"Where can I find waterfalls?" and "how do I get to Norton Park?" are typical questions Chorzempa said she has answered since arriving in July. A Southington resident, Chorzempa admitted she never spent much time in Plainville before this year. "I didn’t know much about Plainville before I worked here," Chorzempa said, "but the people are just terrific." Chorzempa said she will use her $25,000 Ambassadorial Scholarship to study international relations and public policy for a year at the University of Queensland, located on the Eastern edge of the Gold Coast in Brisbane, Australia.
A 1998 graduate of Southington High School and a 2002 graduate of Fordham University in New York, Chorzempa said she will use the opportunity to help further career aspirations in conflict negotiation and peace management. Chorzempa said she was a dual American- and African-American studies major in college, and hopes to someday find employment in a field where she can be idealistic but practical. "I’m looking for something I can help people with, but also something I can work in," Chorzempa said.
Rotary Clubs allow scholarship recipients to submit six universities throughout the world where they would like to study. Southington Rotary chose University of Queensland from her list of schools in Africa, Australia and New Zealand, she said. This will be her second trip to Australia; she spent six months at the University of South Wales in Sydney during her senior year in college. It was then that Chorzempa developed an interest in helping to improve the social and economic conditions for Australian native aboriginal tribes, she said. If her schedule grants sufficient flexibility, Chorzempa said she will try to become involved in aboriginal community service projects during her stay.
Chorzempa said she first heard about the scholarship nine months ago, while speaking to the Southington Rotary about a previous trip they had sponsored for her. While on winter break her sophomore year of college, Chorzempa said she traveled to Kingston, Jamaica with a group of 11 Fordham students to take part in a global outreach program at the Missionary of Charity Shelter. The shelter was founded by Mother Theresa, and serves the needs of the neediest individuals in Kingston, where the citizen already lives in extreme poverty, she said. "Those people didn’t have anything," Chorzempa said. "It was shocking coming from Southington, Connecticut and seeing this really intense stuff."
Once she returned home, Chorzempa said she learned that the outreach program did not allow volunteers to return to a country two years in a row, unless the participant applied to become a group leader. Chorzempa said she knew it would be a challenge, but because of the bonds she developed with Kingston residents during her mission, she decided to assume the added responsibility and apply for the program again during her junior year. "You’re not supposed to go back," Chorzempa said, "(but) I chose to lead it because I really wanted to see those people."
The Kingston trips cost about $1,500 each per person, and many volunteers turned to local businesses for sponsorships. Thanks to the Rotary’s generous donation, Chorzempa said she was able to raise the necessary funds. - complete text
