Rotary Peace Fellow Named From Delaware County

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Rotary Southeastern PA District is delighted to report that an applicant from Boothwyn in Delaware County has been selected to become a Rotary Peace Fellow with the 2025 entering class. She will study at the Rotary Peace Center affiliated with Uppsala University in Sweden, with full funding to earn a Masters’ degree in two years.

Carly Aquino attended Villa Maria High School in Malvern and George Washington University in D.C. She majored in International Affairs and Conflict Resolution and also studied abroad in Rwanda. She subsequently joined the Peace Corps, for which she served in the country of Benin in West Africa. Her time there was dramatically cut short by the evacuation of Peace Corps personnel everywhere due to the COVID pandemic.

Unexpectedly, back in Philadelphia territory, she worked for a refugee resettlement non-profit to help families, at that time primarily from Afghanistan, find shelter and resources.

Post-pandemic, Carly returned to Benin as a grants-based researcher. Currently, she works there with a cross-national coalition of governments aiming to help prevent the spread of violence and exploitation associated with the expansion of terrorist groups. Carly’s expertise focuses on recognizing the central roles of women in vulnerable rural communities and their importance in responding to threats.

The Rotary Peace Centers are located at universities in Australia, England, Japan, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, and the US, allowing for students around the world to study peace and conflict resolution in an international setting outside of their own countries' structures and understandings.