Even in the face of COVID-19 challenges, our latest District 6900 Global Grant Scholar and family are off to London! Jared Hampson will be studying at King’s College London for a Masters degree in Peace and Security.

This is the first time that District 6900 will support a scholar with family on such a scholarship. (We have supported 12 such Global Grant Scholars since 2010 - all through money we receive back from The Rotary Foundation Annual Fund based on our district's donations three years earlier). I recently talked with Jared, who described his family’s journey to their London flat. After early morning arrival in London on a red-eye flight, he proceeded to bounce all over London to obtain the keys to their 2 room flat, arriving nearly 24 hours after US departure. All of this with an eight-month old and a mandated 14-day quarantine.  Here's some of what he had to share:

"The Hampson family is doing well and starting to feel settled in in London. I am just starting the first week at King's College. It has been a chaotic month for the university as COVID cases in the UK have been on the rise. The university made the decision this week that for the time being, all classes will be online. If the rate of COVID infection declines to a safe level in the future, they will try to use small in person classes. This week the UK government put restrictions on groups greater than six people from meeting, and rumours are spreading that there might be another full lockdown.

"That being said, the school is quickly trying to adapt to fully online. The modules I will be studying for the year are Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, International Law and Conflict, and International Politics of the Middle East. The last one was not my first choice, but was the only one available and I think will still be interesting. The London Rotary District will be holding their Scholar Welcome this Saturday on Zoom, and I am looking forward to it."