Parenti, who graduated from ��AV in 2011 with a degree in political science and a minor in Spanish, is a graduate student in the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. In September, she will begin training to become a foreign-service officer, a public servant who promotes peace and helps Americans abroad.

Her interest in public diplomacy first began after the events of September 11, 2001, when Parenti was 12.

“The Islamic phobia that grew in the world after 9/11 piqued my interest,” said Parenti. “My stepfather at the time was an Israeli pilot who lived in New York. We couldn’t get a hold of him, and that scared my mother and me.”

After recognizing some Americans’ shift in attitude toward foreigners, Parenti developed an interest in why Americans responded negatively to specific groups of people.

As an undergraduate student at UCF, Parenti was part of the Burnett Honors College, where she completed her Honors in the Major thesis on neocolonialism as well as a separate research project about how ideas affect history. She also participated in the McNair Scholars Program for first-generation college students, which allowed her to attend a month-long research exchange trip to Croatia.

“The McNair program largely emphasized the importance of research,” said Parenti. “My research trip to Croatia through the program totally switched my focus.”

Parenti was also awarded the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship, supports her continuing education. In her graduate career, she’s specializing in Eastern European foreign policy, international security and international organizations.

Recently, Parenti published an op-ed in The Globalized World Post, an international-relations blog, which discussed alignment politics in the former Soviet Union. At Seton Hall, she has worked with the Seton Hall radio station’s Global Current radio program as an analysis writer and has served as an associate editor for the student-run scholarly journal, The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations.

In the future, Parenti hopes to write for news outlets and obtain her Ph.D. so that she can inspire other students as they pursue research and international opportunities.

Stephanie and Roseann Parenti have a unique relationship. Concern about Stephanie’s well-being in the midst of the abuse and financial instability that rocked her young life drove Roseann to pass her daughter from relative to relative around the state.

Although Roseann was always a part of her daughter’s life and the two lived together for some time, Stephanie eventually settled in the Tampa area with her grandparents.

Stephanie, a first-generation college student, will graduate Saturday during one of four weekend ceremonies at the UCF Arena . She will earn a degree in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations. She’ll go onto graduate school and then will work with the U.S. State Department.

And her mom couldn’t be prouder.

“I believe with all my heart that it takes a village to raise a child,” Roseann said.  “The diversities that Stephanie has lived through make her the most wonderful person I know.”

A student in UCF’s Burnett Honors College, Stephanie was awarded the prestigious Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship. She was one of only 20 recipients from across the country.

As a fellow, she’ll continue her education at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and then start with the Foreign Service, where she sees a future for herself working in politics and public diplomacy.

“I’m most looking forward to meeting people from different cultures, spending time with them and getting to know how things operate in different countries,” she said.

Stephanie says she’s grateful for her unusual upbringing, which exposed her to different cultures and points of view.

After seeing the proliferation of xenophobia around her after 9/11, she became committed to learning about other cultures and translating people’s customs and values.

“I saw so much discrimination,” Stephanie said. “It hurts, because we’re all foreigners. We all come from different backgrounds.”

“Having the exposure to learn about any culture I wanted to really drove me,” she added.

Stephanie received her associate’s degree from Valencia Community College, where she studied political science and participated in the human rights organization Amnesty International.

At UCF, she focused on international studies with a minor in Spanish. She has also been active in research, completing a project about how ideas affect history and writing an Honors in the Major senior thesis on neocolonialism.

She credits the mentorship that she has received from the McNair Scholars Program with helping her discover her love for research and earning the Pickering Fellowship. The program aims to increase the number of first-generation college students from low-income families and underrepresented groups pursuing doctoral degrees by exposing them to research and other scholarly activities.

“It’s been my foundation here at UCF,” said Parenti. “Without McNair, I wouldn’t have gotten into research or Honors in the Major. It’s the greatest thing I’ve done at UCF.”

Stephanie also was named a MacArthur International Relations Scholar by UCF’s Office of Global Perspectives. The scholarship honored her commitment to building international awareness and understanding in the local community.

Stephanie hopes to earn a graduate assistantship at Seton Hall, a role that would allow her to mentor undergraduate students and share the importance of research with them.

But for now, she’s most excited about giving her mom the perfect Mother’s Day gift — the opportunity to see her daughter graduate from college.

“I could not be more proud of her and how she persevered to become the woman she is,” Roseann said.