Hello from Edinburgh!
March brought a whirlwind of Rotary events, schoolwork, assessments, and crazy weather! I had a great time at our monthly Rotary meeting at our new favorite venue, McClaren’s on the Corner. The women of Edinburgh Rotary celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8 with a potluck lunch at member Patsy’s house. It was a beautiful spring day and it was so wonderful to celebrate with the women of Rotary! I had the pleasure of attending the Rotary District Conference for Scotland South (District 1320) from March 13-15. It was great to connect with the other Rotary clubs and fellow Global Scholars based in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The speakers were phenomenal and I had the opportunity to share about my experience as a Global Scholar at the conference. I am so privileged to be able to have experiences like these and be able to grow and learn as a person and scholar.I have also been involved with some Edinburgh Napier University students in chartering a Rotaract club for the Edinburgh area. Rotaract is a great way for young professionals and students to be involved with Rotary’s mission and participate in volunteer activities, socials, and fellowships.
This month has been very busy with multiple assessments and group projects. On March 12, I presented an applied research project I had done with a group for our Case Studies in Sustainable Development Course. This project was a consultancy-style research report that aimed to identify indicators for meaningful sustainability learning experiences. We worked in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Social Responsibility and Sustainability, which was a highly rewarding experience. I hope to work in collaboration with them again for my dissertation, and I had a meeting a few days ago to discuss opportunities for completing my dissertation alongside them to support their work.
Alongside my Rotary and coursework experiences, I have done a little more sightseeing this month! I made my way to the beautiful Edinburgh Castle for a long tour. I really enjoyed its spectacular history. For our Case Studies in Sustainable Development course, we took a class field trip to the Pentland Hills to learn about their agricultural sustainability projects. It was a long hike up the hills, but the view at the end made it all worth it!
March was a fantastic month, and I am looking forward to what April brings... hopefully the
cherry blossoms start to make an appearance soon!
Cheers! Ashton
Rotary District Conference in Renfrew, just outside of Glasgow
Pentland Hills, we took a fieldtrip here for one of my classes.
Rotaract tabling at the conference.
Visit to the Edinburgh Castle