UC Irvine has selected two students to receive the inaugural XIV Dalai Lama Endowed Scholarship, recognizing a commitment to ethics and leadership on campus and in the community. The undergraduate winners had a private audience with His Holiness on Tuesday, Sept. 12, in Pasadena, Calif.
Juniors Rajiv Ramdeo and Aswathi Sreedharan each will receive a $7,500 scholarship and $2,500 funding to pursue projects related to ethics and leadership, so that they can carry on these ideals as they were presented by the Dalai Lama when he visited UCI in April 2004.
"The Dalai Lama is one of the great ethical leaders of our time," said Chancellor Michael V. Drake, "and for UCI to have the only endowed scholarship in his name is an amazing honor." Drake and Manuel N. Gómez, vice chancellor of student affairs, accompanied the students in their meeting with His Holiness.
"I'm extremely pleased to introduce these two extraordinary recipients of the inaugural UCI Dalai Lama scholarship," said Gómez. "It's our hope that their leadership and their commitment to the ideals of compassion and action will be positive for the entire student body and beyond.
"We're also very grateful to His Holiness for personally taking time to meet our students and to inspire them as they strive to fulfill the values of compassion and leadership on campus and in the community," Gómez added.
Ramdeo, who heard the Dalai Lama speak at UCI in 2004, started a meditation club on campus last year. A longtime devotee to meditation, Ramdeo said he wants to help others experience meditation as a way of developing inner peace and spirituality. The scholarship will fund his project to expand the club, bringing a variety of leaders to campus to discuss meditation, humanitarian work and ethical leadership.
"I try to follow the Dalai Lama's example, in that he doesn't endorse a specific religion when he talks to the public, but he explains how we can apply spiritual teachings to our lives and achieve a sense of inner peace and encourage peace around the world," Ramdeo said.
A biological science major with a minor in African-American studies, Ramdeo conducted research for two years at the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine and hopes to pursue a career in the medical field. He is from Palo Alto, Calif.
The other winner, Sreedharan, is a double major in biomedical engineering and international studies with a minor in conflict studies. She plans to organize a camp for student leaders from colleges around the state to gather for discussion and activities that encourage unity among students and support peace around the world - an expanded version of a project she helped organize last year.
"It's an amazing opportunity to be able to meet the Dalai Lama, whom I greatly admire for dedicating his life to world peace, an ideal that's very important in my life," Sreedharan said.
In addition to her leadership activities with students, Sreedharan recently completed a research fellowship in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, where she worked on differentiations of stem cells into bone tissue. She is from Artesia, Calif.
The scholarship fund was endowed by a group of private citizens who were among the more than 5,500 individuals in attendance when the Dalai Lama spoke at UCI. The donors created the scholarship, which will be awarded annually, to honor his visit and encourage future generations of students to follow the ideals he shared, such as developing compassionate and ethical leadership inside and outside the classroom. For more information, visit http://www.vcsa.uci.edu/DalaiLamaScholarship.
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