Like many of her college peers, Yale senior Cindy Huang dreams of helping to change the world.

For Huang, nothing seems out of reach, and she's not averse to engaging in a little competition if it can help her pursue her dreams. She applies for almost any scholarship, fellowship or internship that can give her the opportunity to study global issues, or -- even better in her view -- immerse herself in the culture of a foreign land.

In the past two years, Huang has traveled twice to China and once to Indonesia with the support of Yale's competitive Richard U. Light and Richter Summer fellowships, a Benjamin Silliman Prize and a Charles Kao Scholarship. As a winner of an international competition, she was one of 250 student delegates to the 1997 International Management Symposium in Switzerland, which brought together 600 prominent business leaders and foreign officials. Last year, she was one of eight undergraduates chosen to spend spring break at the Chinese University of Hong Kong under a program run by the Council on East Asian Studies, part of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS).

Her laurels don't end there. Last year, Huang was one of only two Yale student winners of the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which supports her senior year as well as three years of graduate study. And, just recently, she was picked from a group of more than 1,000 applicants as one of Glamour magazine's "Top Ten College Women for 1998." Huang and the other women chosen for this distinction, which recognizes outstanding academic and extracurricular achievement, are featured in the October issue of the magazine.

"There isn't a scholarship that gets by me if it has some relevance to my passions," says Huang, who is majoring in ethics, politics and economics (EPE). "There is just so much that I want to do, and it just seems that these are the years that I have those opportunities."

Huang's ultimate goal is a career in public policy at an international level, in which she could combine her interest in global economic development issues, international relations and finance. She hopes to address some of the problems faced by vulnerable developing countries vying for a prominent role in the international economy, and is particularly interested in helping to foster greater cooperation between the public and private sectors in those countries. Ideally, says Huang, she'd like to work at the United Nations or the World Bank. In fact, she worked one summer as a rapporteur at the United Nations, where she wrote summary reports for meetings on U.N. reform.

Her scholarship-supported travels have helped Huang get a head start on her career path. While in China on a Light Fellowship, she was an intern for CNN International during the Hong Kong takeover, an experience that gave her insight into how the media covers major world events. Last summer, she did a research project on technology transfer in China; spent some time in England doing research for an Oxford University economist; and traveled to Indonesia, arriving there during the peak of rioting and civil unrest.

Disappointed that her plans to do economic research in Indonesia had been thwarted, and unable to leave the airport for 24 hours as she awaited a departing flight, Huang nevertheless took advantage of the situation to conduct informal interviews with ethnic Chinese Indonesians.

"When I first got to Indonesia, people kept telling me that it was dangerous for me because I am Chinese," says Huang. "A lot of anger was being directed at the Chinese, who make up 3 percent of the Indonesian population but control 50 percent of the economy. The Chinese district was set on fire, and as I walked around in the airport I could see the smoke. For me, it was an opportunity to see the real consequences of macroeconomic policy -- to observe the human side of the economic development issues I've studied in courses."

When Huang first came to Yale, she intended to major in computer science, but she quickly changed her mind after realizing that she would be happier working more directly with people. Since freshman year, she has been very active in extracurricular activities. She has been a member of the Yale Debate Association for four years, and is currently its vice president. Last year, she cofounded the Juvenile Justice League, a group of students concerned with advocacy and social activism on issues of legal and prison reform. The group's members mentor young people from New Haven who are incarcerated, on probation or in special programs as an alternative to incarceration.

Her involvement in the Juvenile Justice League, Huang says, has been one of her most meaningful undergraduate activities.

"I didn't choose to come to Yale because it affords so many opportunities for community service but I knew that I would become involved in the city because I am a big believer that, wherever you are, you should try to understand the community you are living in," comments the Yale senior. "For me, public service is life. My involvement in the Juvenile Justice League has given my passion about it a focus, as well as a lot of very practical experience in overcoming some of the challenges of starting a new community initiative. I've really come to appreciate the amount of work that so many students have done to start new service-oriented programs."

A freshman counselor this year, Huang is also a research assistant at the Economic Growth Center for Gustav Ranis, the Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics and director of the YCIAS. In addition, as an intern for the Pivotal States Project, she has researched global issues such as population, human rights and the environment for "The Pivotal States: A new framework for U.S. policy in the developing world," a forthcoming book by Paul Kennedy, the J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and director of International Security Studies. Huang is now helping to organize local events in conjunction with the launching of the book.

"Cindy has tremendous energy," says Jean Krasno, executive director of the Academic Council on the United Nations System at YCIAS, who is also project director of Kennedy's "Pivotal States." "She is extremely resourceful, and she knows exactly how to tackle a research problem. She's also very, very bright, and somehow, in the course of doing everything that she does, she also manages to have fun."

Fun is exactly what Huang is planning as she approaches her final semester at Yale. First, she hopes that she'll be celebrating the winning of yet another major award, such as the Rhodes or Marshall Scholarship. Regardless of the outcome of those applications, she's intent on joining with classmates in some senior year partying. "I fully expect to be at every senior event," Huang says. After that, she's hoping she won't be diverted from spending her very first summer since coming to Yale at her family's home in a Chicago suburb.

"I haven't spent more than a week since I came here at home with my family," she admits. "We miss each other."