Amy Stabler treasures the Flinn Scholarship’s life-shaping opportunities

September 2, 2015

By Matt Ellsworth

Amy StablerIn celebration of the 30th class of Flinn Scholars, selected earlier this year, several members of the Flinn Scholars Alumni Advisory Council have offered reflections on their own undergraduate experiences.

AMY STABLER

Flinn Scholar Class of 2007
Current Position
: Council Aide, City of Tucson

If you had asked me what I was going to study in college when I was awarded the Flinn Scholarship in 2007, my likely response would have been, “Yes!” If pressed, I might have admitted that I felt compelled by many options… but I could at least rule out studying Spanish.

The Flinn Scholarship presented me with many life-shaping opportunities to take myself entirely by surprise, and sure enough, the five months that I spent studying Spanish language and history in Madrid remain one of my most cherished and important life events.

As a freshman, I could have counted the number of times I had set foot outside of the Southwest on one hand. I would not have been prepared to take advantage of the Flinn Scholarship’s generous study-abroad stipend without the three-week summer seminar in which all freshmen Scholars participate. I formed life-long bonds with the other members of my Flinn class as we made our way through the cities, towns, and villages of southwestern Hungary and Transylvania, learning to travel effectively and purposefully along the way. That experience set me up to thrive during a solo Congressional internship in Washington, D.C., the following year, and I will always treasure the Flinn-supported time I spent in Spain as a junior. It forced me to forget to be shy, taught me to handle uncertainty with grace, and encouraged me to seek adventure in everything.