Jill Capotosto will spend up to two years in Vietnam assisting with communications for an international wildlife anti-trafficking organization.
[/caption]Environmental studies and strategic communications double major Jill Capotosto travels to Vietnam next month as Elon University’s first recipient of a fellowship designed for new college graduates to help serve various needs across Asia.
Founded in 1898, the Princeton in Asia fellowship program is funded by an independent, nonprofit organization affiliated with Princeton University with a stated mission to “educate Americans about Asia and to help Asian communities better understand the United States.”
Capotosto will work in Hanoi with TRAFFIC, an international nonprofit established in 1976 to help conserve and protect wildlife and plants from illegal trade. “I cannot wait for the experiences and opportunities this next year will bring,” Capotosto said. “I’m so excited for all I will be able to learn and see.”
The Honors Fellow and Periclean Scholar was active in several campus organizations, including the Center for Leadership, Visions Magazine and the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. Her honors thesis examined the way four countries – the United States, China, Norway and Costa Rica – communicated messages about climate change. She has also interned with Environment Texas, an advocacy group in her hometown of Austin, Texas.
Capotosto plans to return in no more than two years to the United States for a graduate program in environmental policy or environmental communications. Her research interests are in effective ways to talk about climate change.
“I knew coming into Elon that I wanted to be an environmental studies major,” she said. “Conservation is a value my parents instilled, and coupled with my love of the outdoors, it felt like the natural thing for me to study.”
Capotosto is the daughter of Tom and Trudi Capotosto of Austin, Texas.
For the 2013-14 academic year, Princeton in Asia funded 165 fellowships in 21 countries in fields such as education, health, international development, environmental advocacy, journalism, engineering, technology, law and business.
Elon University students and alumni interested in fellowships such as Princeton in Asia should contact the Office of National and International Fellowships at (336) 278-5749.