University Honors Program Student Danielle Pals Wins National Fellowship [excerpt from press release]

Danielle Pals, Moscow, International Studies and Spanish
Pals has received an Award of Excellence Fellowship for Graduate Studies from Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest, largest and most selective all-discipline honor society; she is one of only 99 recipients chosen nationwide. While at the University of Idaho, she has been a member of the Honors Program, including serving on the Honors Student Advisory Board; she will receive an Honors Program Certificate, the program's highest level of distinction for completed honors coursework. She also has been a member of Golden Key, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies; and is a Martin Scholar. "Academics are important to me for a variety of reasons," she said. "I strive to be extremely well rounded, and education helps me achieve that personal goal. More importantly, I am determined to make a difference in my career field of choice – international relations – and I want to be as fully equipped as possible to effect change. This means an excellent academic education, as well as real world experience." Fluent in Spanish, she spent a year on exchange to the University of Zaragoza in Spain. "Danielle's look into the reasons why nations opt to take differences to the International Court of Justice or not is sophisticated and nuanced; her future work will matter to the world, and will be grounded in her time here at the University of Idaho," said Bill Smith, director of the Martin Institute. "Few people can be well rounded and specialized at the same time, but Danielle's approach to studying international relations while at the university is exactly that. In 2007-2008, Pals will work for Jubilee USA- a non-profit that advocates for debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries. In fall 2008, she heads to Georgetown University's Law School as a member of the Global Law Scholars program.