UCI News

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…

October 17, 2007
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.