Earlier this month, Ellie Ott sat two rows away from Paul Rusesabagina, the hero depicted in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” as he spoke in Pittsburgh about the 1994 genocide in the African country.

Rusesabagina hid and saved about 1,200 fellow Rwandans while he managed a hotel in the war-torn country.

He encouraged Ott and her fellow students at the University of Pittsburgh to work to stop present and future genocide, such as in the Darfur region of Sudan.

“That was very powerful,” Ott said.

She already had taken an interest in global issues, and in a way, Ott will answer part of Rusesabagina’s challenge.

The 2004 Free State High School valedictorian, who is now a sophomore at the Pennsylvania university, will spend about two months this summer working with refugees in northern Zambia.

Ott recently was selected as one of 30 college students from across the country to participate in Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment, or FORGE. Director Kjerstin Erickson founded the organization in 2003 while she was a Stanford University student.

Ellie Ott, a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh and a 2004 Free State High School valedictorian, was recently selected to work with Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment, and this summer she will spend about two months working with refugees in the Kala Refugee Camp in Zambia.

The Kala Refugee Camp houses more than 22,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to FORGE.

“We hope to give refugees more education and more power. Hopefully the conflicts will stop,” said Ott this week from her parents’ Lawrence home.

As a FORGE ambassador, Ott must design an individual project to benefit the refugees. While she continues to plan for the trip, Ott says she is leaning toward an educational project.

“They’re really eager to learn, but a lot of times they don’t get the opportunity,” Ott said. “Education empowers people to learn and help themselves.”

She spoke with passion about poverty in the region and talked about the Kala camp having one library book per person. She has heard other FORGE ambassadors talk about how grateful refugees are to work with new faces.

“Others have said that you get there, and all of the kids are excited to see you,” Ott said.

Beginning in January, she will prepare extensively and also must raise $4,500 before she leaves in June.

Anyone wishing to donate funding for her trip can reach her by e-mail at emo6@pitt.edu. More information also is available at the Web site www.forgeprogram.org.

As far as her interest in global issues, Ott attributes it to growing up in Lawrence, a place she said also taught her to give back to others.

“I just hope to be able to give back some to the refugee camp and try to make their lives better there,” she said.