Rotary Peace Scholarship and Beyond

At Rotary Central Melbourne we are working in partnership with Australian Red Cross to design an ongoing approach to support Peace Scholarship applicants from their organisation.  We had the first applicant recommended by the D9800 panel this year and are keen to make this a bigger part of our Foundation goals in the future.

To help our members better understand the value of the program, we are fortunate to be joined by Jessica as one of our previous Peace Scholars to speak about the scholarship. Jessica will detail her own experience and achievements since.

Jessica was selected to be a Rotary District 9800 World Peace Fellow at the University of North Carolina between 2011 and 2013. Her area of expertise is multicultural interfaith dialogue and peace building, particularly between Muslim and Christian communities.

Jessica now works at Melton City Council as a Community Capacity Coordinator. She manages a team in the areas of community engagement, development, funding, leadership, and volunteering, as well as indigenous affairs and intercultural development.

Experienced in Community Capacity Development with a demonstrated history of working in the government and education sectors, Jessica is skilled in Intercultural Leadership, Community Engagement, Conflict Resolution, Research and Policy Analysis. With a strong community and social services background, Jessica has a key focus on reducing structural and social exclusion.

Jessica more recently organised the 2019 Intercultural Cities Australasia Symposium, an event exploring the opportunities and challenges of our time in the areas of interculturalism and diversity. Jessica also facilitated the participation of other peace fellow alumni from the Institute for Economics & Peace and the International Storytelling Centre.