Recent graduate Marlee Pittman made University history as she became the first LSU student to receive the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship.
The fellowship is a highly competitive national program that allows recent college graduates to gain experience working in international development and security in Washington D.C. Finalists spend six to nine months in D.C. as project assistants to various organizations and are supported with a salary during that time. Pittman is one of three students to receive the fellowship for fall 2016.
Pittman, who graduated May 13 with a degree in political science, was a Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College student and a 2014 Truman Scholar. She was the founder and president of LSU’s International Relations Club and a resident assistant for the Global Connections Residential College.
Through the Scoville Fellowship, finalists are allowed the opportunity to develop a long-term project with the help of a host organization. Pittman’s project will center around the Syrian conflict and how politics, culture and religion are impacting the peace negotiations in the region. She said she became aware of the issue while visiting a refugee camp during a study abroad program in Jordan.
“I spent some time on the Syrian border in some camps, so I had kind of different perspective,” she said. “I learned things that I wouldn’t have necessarily learned in the news, so I think I have something valuable to bring to that.”
In addition to studying abroad in Jordan, China and Malaysia, Pittman has interned in D.C. for several years. She served as an aide to former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, an intern for the World Affairs Council and took several classes at George Washington University.
Pittman said although she has worked in D.C. before, the Scoville Fellowship gives her the freedom to begin laying the groundwork for a future career.
“The best part is the autonomy with designing my own work and doing my own research,” she said. “I’m happy to get to start a project that I’m leading on my own with the help of my mentors.”
Studying at LSU helped Pittman design her own academic career to plan around her experiences studying abroad and various internships.
“LSU gave me a lot of autonomy as well,” she said. “For a lot of universities, you have exactly six months to go abroad on one of their designated programs, for LSU, I was able to keep my scholarships and get a lot of different funding for a lot of different things.”