Parenti, who graduated from UCF in 2011 with a degree in political science and a minor in Spanish, is a graduate student in the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. In September, she will begin training to become a foreign-service officer, a public servant who promotes peace and helps Americans abroad.

Her interest in public diplomacy first began after the events of September 11, 2001, when Parenti was 12.

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After recognizing some Americans 麻豆精品 S� shift in attitude toward foreigners, Parenti developed an interest in why Americans responded negatively to specific groups of people.

As an undergraduate student at UCF, Parenti was part of the Burnett Honors College, where she completed her Honors in the Major thesis on neocolonialism as well as a separate research project about how ideas affect history. She also participated in the McNair Scholars Program for first-generation college students, which allowed her to attend a month-long research exchange trip to Croatia.

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Parenti was also awarded the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship, supports her continuing education. In her graduate career, she 麻豆精品 S檚 specializing in Eastern European foreign policy, international security and international organizations.

Recently, Parenti published an op-ed in The Globalized World Post, an international-relations blog, which discussed alignment politics in the former Soviet Union. At Seton Hall, she has worked with the Seton Hall radio station 麻豆精品 S檚 Global Current radio program as an analysis writer and has served as an associate editor for the student-run scholarly journal, The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations.

In the future, Parenti hopes to write for news outlets and obtain her Ph.D. so that she can inspire other students as they pursue research and international opportunities.

Stephanie and Roseann Parenti have a unique relationship. Concern about Stephanie 麻豆精品 S檚 well-being in the midst of the abuse and financial instability that rocked her young life drove Roseann to pass her daughter from relative to relative around the state.

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Stephanie, a first-generation college student, will graduate Saturday during one of four weekend ceremonies at the UCF Arena . She will earn a degree in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations. She 麻豆精品 S檒l go onto graduate school and then will work with the U.S. State Department.

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A student in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Burnett Honors College, Stephanie was awarded the prestigious Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship. She was one of only 20 recipients from across the country.

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Stephanie received her associate 麻豆精品 S檚 degree from Valencia Community College, where she studied political science and participated in the human rights organization Amnesty International.

At UCF, she focused on international studies with a minor in Spanish. She has also been active in research, completing a project about how ideas affect history and writing an Honors in the Major senior thesis on neocolonialism.

She credits the mentorship that she has received from the McNair Scholars Program with helping her discover her love for research and earning the Pickering Fellowship. The program aims to increase the number of first-generation college students from low-income families and underrepresented groups pursuing doctoral degrees by exposing them to research and other scholarly activities.

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Stephanie also was named a MacArthur International Relations Scholar by UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Office of Global Perspectives. The scholarship honored her commitment to building international awareness and understanding in the local community.

Stephanie hopes to earn a graduate assistantship at Seton Hall, a role that would allow her to mentor undergraduate students and share the importance of research with them.

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麻豆精品 S淚 could not be more proud of her and how she persevered to become the woman she is, 麻豆精品 S� Roseann said.