GV student is seeing the world, and has a plan

“If you have passion and a plan, the opportunities come to you,” says Cole Wirpel, a junior at Arizona State University from Green Valley.

At 20, Wirpel has traveled more than most people will in a lifetime; along with the opportunity come goals and a plan.

“I always wanted to travel, but I could never afford it. In Rio Rico High School, I worked hard so that I could get a scholarship for college, and when I accomplished that, it opened a lot of doors for international experiences that I’ve tried to take advantage of,” Wirpel says.

In summer 2008, Wirpel traveled to Hungary and Romania with 19 other students through the Flinn Foundation Central European Seminar. A month later, he traveled to Istanbul, where he began researching human rights non-governmental organizations in the area. He received additional grants and scholarships to do further research in this area.

Wirpel spent last summer teaching English to 60 students in a school in Shanghai.

“I’ll admit that I wasn’t excited about teaching English, which felt a little colonialist,” he said. “But I wanted to experience China, and this was a way to do it while getting paid.”

Wirpel now is in Istanbul, where he has been for the several months.

“I really feel at home in Istanbul. I’m continuing to learn the language and make progress on my research.”

Focusing on studies

Wirpel’s extensive travel and coursework in global studies whetted his interest in global affairs. He decided to focus on the challenges of NGOs funded by grant programs, and he plans to make his career in that field.

“I think I’m drawn to this research because it combines my interest in a global issue like human rights with political institutions and financial corruption,” he says. “I am fascinated by how decision-making in development is moving from bureaucrats and Western experts to grassroots NGOs and local governments. Yet there continue to be problems, and no researchers have studied how individual agencies are trying to implement a community-driven development — which ones are having success and why.”

Then, late last year, Wirpel received the news that he had won a $9,000 grant for an around-the-world study trip this summer from the Circumnavigators Club Foundation. The grant is given to just four U.S. students each year.

Wirpel’s itinerary will enable him to study community-driven development projects in Brazil, the Republic of Macedonia, Israel, the Central African Republic, Tanzania and China. In those countries, Wirpel will do more work related to NGOs and grant programs organized under international institutions like the World Bank and the United States Development Grants program.

“I’m excited and somewhat intimidated by the prospect of being alone on the road in foreign countries for 10 weeks. It’s obviously a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “I planned for it, and with help from my professors and ASU’s excellent scholarship office, I was able to accomplish that goal.”

“My hope is that conducting in-depth analyses of partnerships between aid institutions and NGOs and gaining personal experience observing various projects will guide me toward two successful careers: as an official in the U.S. Agency for International Development, and later, as an administrator for a global non-profit institution,” Wirpel says.

Wirpel has some words of advice for young people who find his accomplishments and goals inspirational:

“For high school students in Santa Cruz County, I would only emphasize that many opportunities are available to them, and that coming from a small town or a rural area is not a limitation. If anything, in the smaller pond it’s much easier to be the big fish. Also, just by virtue of living in the United States, a student has access to so many scholarships, loans, and grants that can make their lives more adventurous.”

Jeannie Applegate is a freelance writer in Sahuarita. Contact her at wordwizard@cox.net.