Like other graduating seniors, biology major Adrienne Jordan has a lot of post-graduation planning to do. She has the Medical College Admission Test to prepare for, medical school applications and interviews, and of course, three months in France.

Jordan is a recipient of one of The Rotary Foundation’s 2009-2010 Ambassador Scholarships. She will study abroad at the Institute de Touraine in Tours, France. When she heard the good news last summer, she was “proud and honored.”

She discovered The Rotary Foundation when she was searching for scholarships to help her study abroad. “I found out that the local Rotary club met right over the bridge,” she said.

She decided to attend a dinner that the Hampton Rotary Club hosted, and they agreed to sponsor her. Trudy O’Reilly, a Rotarian and Jordan’s sponsor counselor, feels Jordan “is an ideal ambassador for Rotary because she has something that cannot be taught, an ability to empathize with people who need help to improve their life, [which is] remarkable, in someone so young.”

The Rotary Foundation’s mission is to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. The foundation’s Ambassadorial Scholarship program sends scholars abroad to serve as goodwill ambassadors and to give presentations about their countries to the host Rotary clubs. The program, according to the Rotary Foundation, aims to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different nations.

After finding the Hampton Rotary Club, Jordan embarked on a six-month journey to complete and submit her scholarship application. “It took me a month just to finish the essays,” she said.

She had to write two essays, one in English, and with the help of Dr. Michele Lewis, one in French. Though she is currently taking French language courses, Jordan is looking forward to her time abroad to improve her fluency. “I’m hoping being immersed in the language will make it easier to acquire,” she said.

Though many other students from across the nation will be participating in the Ambassadorial Scholarships program, Jordan is the only one going to France. Still, she isn’t nervous about being in a foreign country alone.

“My mom always thought I was pretty independent and my dad gave my sister and I the opportunities to travel to different camps at a young age, so that helps to alleviate the fear,” she said.

Jordan will have the host Rotary Club in France to help her get settled, and her mother is planning a vacation to come visit.

Once in France, Jordan hopes to add art classes to her curriculum and go sight-seeing in her free time. However, she still has a lot to do before her trip. She takes the MCAT this spring and she’s looking at medical schools in Maryland, Virginia and New York.

After earning her medical degree, Jordan hopes to become a reconstructive plastic surgeon. The Ambassadorial Scholarship program is a perfect opportunity for her, because she hopes to use plastic surgery to improve the lives of children who have birth defects, and she hopes to do so in a French-speaking country.

O’Reilly believes that Jordan is “just the kind of person we created this scholarship for [because] she is determined to make a difference in this world and has mapped out how she will accomplish each of her goals.”