UCI undergrad wins Dalai Lama scholarship for using art to promote peace

For her efforts to use art as a medium to raise social awareness, Rebecca Dawn Westerman was recently named UC Irvine’s 2007-08 Dalai Lama Scholar. The scholarship is awarded to undergraduates who show leadership potential and emphasize the ideals of ethics, peace and positive global relations. A senior art history major from Weaverville, Calif., Westerman traveled to Thailand and worked with local monks in an orphanage in summer 2006. She plans to use the scholarship to create a large-scale “Peace Flag” exhibit in spring 2008. UCI community members will be able to create their own flags with positive messages, which will be arranged in a circle along the 1-mile perimeter of Ring Road.