<p>Lower Hutt woman Vanessa Schouten is off to prestigious Princeton University courtesy of a fellowship worth nearly $400,000 over the next five years. </p>
<p>The 25-year-old received confirmation of the scholarship last week and leaves for the United States in September to begin studies toward her doctorate in philosophy. </p>
<p>After six years grappling with the ideas of the world’s great thinkers, she still thought confirmation of her fellowship might have been made in error. </p>
<p>“I didn’t believe it to start with,” the Women’s Affairs assistant policy analyst said yesterday. </p>
<p>“I kept expecting to get another e-mail saying they’d made a terrible mistake.” </p>
<p>Now that she knows it’s all true, Ms Schouten has been schooling up on the venerable Ivy League institution she will call home for the next five years. </p>
<p>“It’s really old, really beautiful and really small.” What isn’t, is the monetary scale of Ms Schouten’s scholarship, worth US$58,000 (NZ$77,750) per year. </p>
<p>It covers her study fees and living allowances on a campus just an hour by train from New York City. </p>
<p>Years spent debating at high school taught her about the finer points of building an argument, and an interest in ethics reached fruition when she graduated with a masters in philosophy at Victoria University last year. </p>