Rachel Will (B.A. Public Relations, '12) is one of 14 students nationwide to win the 2012 Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholarship.
Will, who hopes to pursue a career as a foreign correspondent and report from Southeast Asia, will accept the award in New York on Feb. 17 at the OPC Foundation Scholarship Luncheon.
The scholarship is worth $2,000, but recipients can instead opt to have the Foundation pay for travel and living expenses if they are interns in foreign bureaus. As part of the fellowship application, she submitted an adapted article she previously wrote for US-China Today titled "China's Stadium Diplomacy."
"I'm truly honored to have received this award," Will said. "I'm very grateful to USC for all of the opportunities it has given me, including the Global Fellows program in the summer of 2010 in Hong Kong and studying abroad last spring in London."
According to the Overseas Press Club, nearly 200 applications from almost 70 colleges were received in a "very competitive year." In summer 2011, Will participated in a fellowship to Jakarta, Indonesia through USC Marshall - where she is minoring in marketing - and wrote for the local edition of Forbes Magazine, Forbes Indonesia. One day, her boss left a copy of the Overseas Press Club newsletter on her desk.
I read through the pamphlet and found out about the scholarship and applied for the award," she said. "Eleven days later an email with the subject line, 'Congratulations from the OPC Foundation!' appeared in my inbox, much to my surprise and excitement."
Will is the deputy editor of US-China Today, a student-driven publication of USC's US-China Institute that covers the evolving relationship between the United States and China. She also freelances for USC Marshall's media relations department.
