A life of global travel and service sparked the interest of Foundation Scholar Adam Craig, who spent four years of undergraduate school diving deep into the culture, language and history of Africa and the Middle East. Craig will graduate in May with a degree in international studies, while also completing two minors in economics and political science. They also rigorously studied Arabic and Spanish as languages and hopes to use that knowledge for a future in international development.
Craig was heavily involved in WVU’s Student Government Association and the Model United Nations program. Craig was also a member of the WVU Queeries Book Club, College Democrats, WVU NAACP, and Arabic Studies Club, and Helvetia. Last summer, they researched with the Appalachian Food Justice Project and the summer undergraduate research experience under Megan Govindan for the Center for Resilient Communities. They also made it to the final round of the Shuman Challenge, an annual foreign policy competition held in Washington, D.C.
It was Craig’s various study abroad experiences that shaped a desire to pursue a career in international development. Craig first studied in Amman, Jordan, for a spring break trip, and were hooked from there.
“I would just love pouring over these books of architecture and cultures from around the world, and I just wanted to experience that,” Craig said. “I had been studying Arabic at the time, so it really reinforced my commitment to that.”
After that initial trip, Craig continued on international endeavors, including a semester abroad at University Pompeu Fabra in Spain, a Model UN conference in Xi’an, China, and a brief internship with the State Department in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
“Being a Foundation Scholar gave me a sense of security that allowed me to fully focus on school, extra-curriculars, and engaging with the WVU community in a way that simply isn’t possible for a student who works 20-30 hours a week.”
In addition to the Foundation Scholarship, Craig also received the prestigious Boren Scholarship and hopes to return to Tanzania later this year to complete the internship they started before the pandemic began.
After returning from Tanzania, Craig hopes to join the Peace Corps in a Spanish-speaking region to solidify their language skills. Craig also would like to attend graduate school to study development studies or economic development, with hopes to emphasize the intersection of queer theory and development. After graduate school, They hope to find a balance between working with policy through a national agency and working in academia.