Saint Michael's sophomore Kirsten Wilson of West Burke, Vt, awarded Fellowship to study in Uganda

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Kirsten Wilson receives Lacey Fellowship to study the cost of conflict in Uganda.

COLCHESTER, VT (04/26/2012)(readMedia)-- A self-described "army brat" and the sibling of a soldier in Afghanistan, Saint Michael's College sophomore, Kirsten Wilson is "extremely committed to learning the teachings of non-violence" and hopes to bring them to others. She plans to pursue that goal now with the support of the $2,500 Brian Lacey '72 International Fellowship that she has been awarded. The grant will enable her to study the history of conflict within northern Uganda and Rwanda.

Ms. Wilson, a double major in English and anthropology, the daughter of Anna and David Wilson of West Burke, Vt., graduated from Lyndon Institute before coming to Saint Michael's. Her program, run through SIT Study Abroad, will examine the human cost of conflict in northern Uganda and the ways local communities are fostering peace, economic development, and sustainable reconciliation..

The Brian Lacey International Fellowship in Social Justice is designed to encourage and honor Saint Michael's students who have demonstrated superior academic achievement as well as dedication to deeper understanding of issues of social justice.

Array of service projects

Ms. Wilson, an honors student, has involved herself in a remarkable number of volunteer and service activities, taking leadership roles in several. She became a mentor for a Somali Bantu youngster from Winooski who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya. Seeing the suffering the child had been through was Ms. Wilson's awakening to a desire to fight for social justice. This lead to her becoming coordinator of the International Outreach program that connects links mentors to youngsters who need them.

She has since been tutoring refugee children after school and helping Burundians learn English. Her work in the Student Labor Action Movement has led her to help provide coffee hours for the college custodial staff. She personally organized a fund-raiser Skate for Schools: a 450-mile longboard trip around Vermont to benefit Africa ELI, a non-profit that builds schools in South Sudan, and thereby raised several thousand dollars for the project.

Ms. Wilson participated in an SMC service trip to Kentucky through the Christian Appalachian Project that meant she built an addition onto a mobile home for a family of six. And this summer, she is going on a service trip to Kolkata, India, to work in Mother Teresa's orphanage.

Advocacy

Doing this work has led Ms. Wilson to see the value of advocacy in combination with service. Thus she has gotten heavily involved in the Dear Hillary Campaign for the Congo, a prominent Saint Michael's program dedicated to fighting for international political action in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She has also found time to be involved in the campus interfaith community and to volunteer weekly at the Green Mountain Nursing Home.

Ms. Wilson sees her study in Uganda and the Great Lakes Region of Africa as a way of understanding and learning to share the teachings of non-violence.

Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu . Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns. Identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nations Best 376 Colleges, and included in the 2012 Fiske Guide to Colleges, Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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