HARTFORD – Emily Harvey could be considered a Renaissance woman.
The Wellesley College graduate returned from Paraguay in late November following a yearlong study of poor communities in Paraguay under the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship program.
She was one of only a handful of people in the state to receive a Fulbright Scholarship last year.
During the past 12 months, she has mapped out the homes, roads, fields and forests of several very rural communities, then prioritized their greatest needs. She learned that a farming community needs transportation so that their secondary level students could attend school, and that many of the so-called health post buildings are in desperate need of equipment. In another community, her mapping involved the village of the Ache’ indigenous people who have moved out of the forests during the past 30 years. Until then, they were hunters and gatherers.
Her study showed that their greatest need was running water.
“It’s my hope that by doing these diagnostics, someone would work towards these goals,” she said.
Now, she has accepted a fellowship as an intern for the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, and will fly to Paris on Jan. 1. For six months, she will study and work toward cultural heritage and conservation in an effort to stimulate eco-tourism at world heritage sites around the world.
After that, she doesn’t know. She served in the Peace Corps for two years after college graduation. Perhaps the fellowship with UNESCO will lead to a full-time job that will take her to other areas of the world, she said.
Harvey attended Buckfield Jr.-Sr. High School and graduated from Hebron Academy. She is the daughter of Arthur Harvey and Elizabeth Gravalos.
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