My Bio

Hello again, world. I've finally written that short bio Joe has been asking for. Here it is in a nutshell; as Grampa Fred says, "Tell 'em where you've been, where you are, where you'd like to be, and how Rotary is gonna help you get there."

Cynthia Salim is humbled to serve as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar for Westchester Rotary and District 5280. As a Rotary Ambassador of Goodwill, she plans to obtain a graduate degree in Human Values and Contemporary Global Ethics from King's College of London in 2009. Cynthia is currently a senior Philosophy and Political Science double major at Loyola Marymount University. She credits her Jesuit and Marymount education at LMU for her development as a scholar-activist committed to the promotion of justice. In her first year at LMU, Cynthia founded Alumni Connect, a mentoring program that improves access to higher education for inner-city youth in Long Beach. As a Student Senator and President of Students for Labor and Economic Justice, Cynthia supported the Los Angeles Living Wage campaign to lift hotel workers out of poverty. Cynthia is grateful to have the support of her Rotary family and the Rotary Foundation as she develops a career in social justice. She hopes to work for an international NGO one day to increase access to education, improve the lives of women, alleviate poverty, and create a more equitable and ethical global community.


This is the long version of what Grampa Fred requested: my Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Statement of Intent:

My years of service have taught me that working for a better world is not always easy. But every time I faced tough challenges or lost my sense of efficacy, my community of like-minded individuals would unfailingly come to the rescue. Words cannot express my amazement for the ways in which my peers in Sursum Corda Service Organization have lifted one another up through the challenging times of our humanitarian work. The friendship we forged through our shared purpose was humanity at its best, and together we accomplished great things and learned so much about solidarity, friendship, and goodwill. I was excited to learn of this scholarship from 2005 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Aram Nadjarian because I knew it would allow me to build a relationship with Rotary International. And frankly, I hope Rotary will one day be the Sursum Corda of my adult life, giving and taking from me the ideals of service above self and friendship and goodwill. Before I enter into the field of public policy and international law, I am determined to obtain this Masters Degree in Human Values and Contemporary Global Ethics to better understand the ethical philosophy behind the work I will be committing myself to. As I complete my undergraduate career and leave Sursum Corda at LMU, I am a bit anxious about where I will get my inspiration and support from. I know that tough times will come; especially in the international humanitarian field I will be working in. While I am strong in my beliefs about justice and goodwill, I know the power of a community of like-minded individuals to bring the world as it ought to be into reality. I would be honored to have Rotary International walk with me as I embark on my graduate studies and develop my career in international justice.

My intended field of study is Human Rights and Contemporary Global Ethics at King's College of London. I chose this field to complement my career goal of working in the field of international labor law, human rights, and public policy. While the three are interconnected, even more interconnected with policy is the role of shared human values and global ethical philosophy. Ethical philosophy serves as the backbone of our public policies. In an increasingly globalizing world, my ability to reconcile cultural differences with shared human values will be of tremendous value to my career in the international field. As improved communication technology allows and forces us to see the reality of the human condition around the world, we are burdened with the responsibility of intervening and acting upon moral principles to create a more just world. Questions of morality and political philosophy will undoubtedly arise in the near future as we move towards one global community. As a future leader in public policy and international law, I want to be well-equipped with the logic and philosophy behind the policies we will choose to implement to improve the human condition. The location of the best ethics and human rights programs are in Western Europe, which I think reflects educational inequity on an international scale. I chose King's College of London because it had the perfect program for me. But after the privilege of obtaining this world class education, I plan to continue my work in educational equity to ensure an even distribution of quality education globally and make it accessible to those of all socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures, and especially to women.

My work with Students for Labor and Economic Justice combined with my rigorous studies in philosophy and political theory instilled in me this passion for understanding human values and global ethics. I take about monthly visits to my political theory professor, Dr. John Parrish's office hours to flail about anxiously about the unquantifiable nature of justice, the problems of cultural relativism, and the subjectivity of human values. I have truly appreciated Dr. Parrish's patient counseling that has inspired me to obtain this Master's degree in order to delve more deeply into this subject that I think is so important to advocacy of human and labor rights. After working fervently on the living wage campaign for hotel workers as the President of Students for Labor and Economic Justice, I began to question how justice is determined and why labor has come to be so exploited around the world. We recently screened the documentary "Made in LA" about garment workers in downtown Los Angeles whose labor was exploited by fashion retailer Forever 21. For some reason, the level of empathy grew tenfold when my peers discovered that the sweatshops were in Downtown Los Angeles as opposed to somewhere in India. It was as if exploitation afar was somehow more acceptable than the exploitation of our own neighbors. I hope to help the world move towards a more global understanding of justice and human dignity so that we can recognize and support the plight of those a flight away with the same passion we have for those being exploited a block away. The work of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Garment Worker's Center was focused on getting workers the human dignity and justice they deserved. The concept of human rights has always been a fascinating one to me, and my course in the Philosophy of Human Rights further developed my interest in it. While I received a fellowship to obtain my Masters degree in Public Policy and International Affairs at Carnegie Mellon University, I do not feel prepared to go into that quantitative work before first understanding the moral and philosophical theories that justify the work I will be doing. The Human Values and Contemporary Global Ethics program will well prepare me for a career in the dynamic and challenging field of international justice and policy.

I am looking forward to interacting with my host Rotary Club at King's College of London. My attunement to community needs has allowed me to develop several successful service programs such as Alumni Connect. When I arrive at my institution of study, I will definitely be capable of identifying needs and developing programs to address those needs through Rotary International. But one of the most natural service projects for me to conduct as an Ambassadorial Scholar would be to facilitate the development of a Rotaract or Interact club. The impact of service organizations on young people will be the key to developing responsible world leaders. I recently applied for a grant to conduct independent research on Social Activism in European Higher Education. From my conversations with many professors who helped me apply for this grant and have taught in Europe, the impression I get is that there is less social activism than there needs to be in European higher education. Having benefited so greatly from LMU's Center for Service and Action, I cannot imagine how one would grow to be a responsible world leader without engaging in hands on social activism at the high school and college level. Having built and facilitated the City of Lakewood Teen Boards for many years, I will be more than happy and able to lead the development of yet another service organization with the support of Rotary International.

It would be a privilege for me to share with Rotarians and outside organizations alike the importance and impact of the work of Rotary International. But most importantly, I hope Rotary International can become my new Sursum Corda, a community that nurtures and embraces by realistic idealism; a community I can reflect and serve with.