Dan Soucy ’18, of Bedford, New Hampshire, has racked up nearly 15 passport stamps in his 22 years — the majority during his college career.
“I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone in college,” he says. “Learning about people, places and cultures different from my own seemed like the best way to do that. Saint Joseph’s offered me a variety of opportunities to clarify exactly what these interests meant.”
Serving as a William J. Clinton Fellow in New Delhi, India
Dan will spend the next year with the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative in New Delhi, which works to improve quality of life through education and community activism. He also received offers from the Peace Corps, a two-year co-teaching position in Thailand, and the University of Cambridge’s master of philosophy program in international relations and politics.
“I am thrilled to work closely with a program that connects such a wide array of deeply impactful non-profit organizations with a diverse group of motivated fellows,” he says. “Throughout the application process, I learned about previous Clinton fellows and the non-profit organizations they worked with. Each engaged with the Indian communities in a thoughtful and impactful way. I hope to emulate and build upon the great work they have already done and in the process, develop deep ties with the new communities and people I have the privilege to meet.”
His SJU Impact
Dan held numerous positions across campus during his four years. He offered campus tours as a Hawk Host, facilitated service-learning experiences as a Service Scholar in the Faith-Justice Institute, acted as student director and leader for the Philadelphia Service Immersion Program (PSIP) to welcome freshmen and served in three alternative spring break trips to the Appalachian region through APEX and one to Peru through the Winter Immersion Program.
He also studied abroad in the fall 2016 semester at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, India. Dan later received a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State for the summer of 2017 to continue his study of Hindi at the American Institute of Indian Studies Summer Language Program, in Jaipur, India. The scholarship is a part of the Competitive Language Program, a United States government effort to increase the number of Americans studying abroad and mastering critical foreign languages.
Why did he choose SJU?
As a high school junior, Dan reached out to a faculty member in the International Relations program. Within an hour, he had a thorough response welcoming him to learn more.
"I thought, if this is how much effort and time the faculty put into students who haven't even applied — let alone committed to Saint Joseph's — I can't imagine what they do for their own students," he says. "I think that was the first time I realized SJU has something special to offer.”
