In just a few weeks, biochemistry sophomore Ke Wu will be embarking on a five-country journey to research education.
The Tucson native was recently awarded the Circumnavigators Club Foundation's grant for a 40,000-mile trip across the world to study on any issue she wanted.
The foundation gives the grant to four students across the country each year.
Wu's proposal outlined her plan to travel to Mongolia, India, Tanzania, Romania and Peru to study childhood education.
More specifically, Wu said she will be researching non-governmental organizations dedicated to educating disadvantaged children.
"Here, we think public schools, and we think free," she said.
But in other countries, education is not free, Wu said, because students have to pay for books and uniforms.
"These seem like menial costs to us, but to them, it's a day's meal," she said.
The Circumnavigators Club Foundation was established in 1964, according to the foundation's Web site, and started giving grants to college students for around-the-world travel-study projects in 1971.
According to the site, 80 students have won the grant to date, researching dozens of global topics.
Following the trip, winning students must complete research papers based on what they learned on their trips.
Wu said her interest in education began with Johnny Dearmore, her first teacher in the U.S. after her family emigrated from China when she was 5. She knew no English.
Dearmore, who has been teaching at Blenman Elementary School in Tucson for 17 years, spent time helping Wu with her English and giving her extra math problems to solve.
"She was this tiny little girl in my first grade class," Dearmore said. "She was the best student in the class — way beyond her years as far as her effort and maturity level."
When Wu called to tell him she was a Flinn Scholar in 2006, Dearmore said he wasn't surprised.
"I knew even when I had her in my first grade class she was a mover and shaker," he said.
Wu now works with Camp Sparky, a group that volunteers at Arizona's Title I schools, which educates children lower on the economic totem pole, Wu said.
The students are no less enthusiastic to learn, though, she added.
"Disadvantaged students don't have a lack of potential," she said. "There's just not a lot of people to bring out that potential."
Wu said she plans on going to medical school after completing her bachelor's degree.
Despite a love for teaching, Wu plans to approach educating young people a different way — as a pediatric surgeon.
"Even in the field of medicine as a pediatric surgeon, you can educate the children you work with in so many different ways," she said.
Reach the reporter at: allison.denny@asu.edu.
