HARTFORD – Emily Harvey felt she made a difference when she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay after she graduated from Wellesley College in 1998.

So much so that she is returning to the poor South American country as a Fulbright scholar on Monday. She will be gone a year and receive more than $15,000 for living and travel expenses.

Harvey, 28, the daughter of Arthur Harvey and Elizabeth Gravalos, is one of only a handful of Maine residents to receive the prestigious scholarship that enables talented professionals to study, lecture or conduct research abroad.

Harvey’s research under the scholarship is in some ways related to what she did as a Peace Corps volunteer. During those two years, she worked with Paraguayan elementary teachers to teach environmental education to young students. She also helped with gardening and built up a library where there was none before.

Her year-long research also involves the environment – she will work with non-governmental organizations toward developing ideas to protect waterways and forests through the use of the geographic information system.

“The land is being rapidly deforested,” she said. “I want to look at all the organizations and pull out strategies that will work.”

Harvey’s interest in the environment started when she was young. Her parents were organic farmers, and she had several teachers while a student at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School that fed her natural interest in the environment. She graduated from Hebron Academy.

“I am part of the environmental generation. People are more aware now,” she said.

She has been active in a variety of other environmentally-related organizations including the Envirothon, has worked on an organic farm, and served as the recycling coordinator while at Wellesley.

She was always the one asking the questions, she said.

She still asks lots of questions and is trying to find the answers.

Her master’s thesis at Clark University focuses on the impact of people on the climate of the Yucatan. She graduates with a master’s degree in environmental science and policy just a few days after she leaves for Paraguay.

She won’t be the only Fulbright scholar in Paraguay. Another young woman from another part of the United States will also be there. She will be studying the wars in Paraguay from the 1930s to the 1950s and the impact those wars made on the country.

She will also be Harvey’s roommate in Paraguay’s capital city, Asuncion.

As a Fulbright scholar, Harvey must submit reports on her findings halfway through the project, then at the end. She also plans to publish her research.

Whether she decides to go after a doctorate in a related field will depend upon what she finds in her research.

Being chosen as a Fulbright scholar is an honor, she said.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard that my proposal was accepted in May,” she said. “I’ve always liked reading and maps and asking questions. I learn something new and find new ways to look at things,” she said.