Six members of Elon’s Class of 2022 and two alumnae have been chosen to show English in another country by means of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, with one other 4 college students named as alternates for Fulbright awards.
It was a exceptional yr for Elon college students making use of to the distinguished program, with all 12 Elon candidates who had been named as semifinalists for awards chosen as finalists or named alternates.
“The success of Elon college students on this extremely aggressive choice course of is a testomony to their big selection of educational achievements, extracurricular commitments, and dedication to cross-cultural exchanges,” mentioned Professor Ann Cahill, director of the Workplace of Nationwide and Worldwide Fellowships at Elon. “Additionally it is a credit score to their mentors, who’ve guided them all through their undergraduate careers, and who will stay essential sources of perception and assist as they embark on these thrilling alternatives.”
The biggest alternate program within the nation, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards greater than 1,800 grants yearly in all fields of research. Latest graduates and graduate college students undertake graduate research, superior analysis, college educating, and first and secondary educating worldwide. Based in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the flagship worldwide academic alternate program sponsored by the U.S. authorities and is designed to extend mutual understanding between the individuals of the USA and folks of different international locations.
Elon has been repeatedly acknowledged for the variety of its alumni who participated within the Fulbright Program as assistant lecturers, graduate college students, and researchers, and in 2021 was named a high producer of Fulbright college students for the sixth time since 2012.
Receiving awards this yr are:
Jack Corby ‘22
Jack Corby, who’s graduating with a level in coverage research, has obtained a Fulbright Award to show English in Bulgaria. Initially from Alexandria, Virginia, Corby has served this yr as scholar physique president and govt president of the Scholar Authorities Affiliation. An Elon Engagement Scholar, Corby was honored as residential assistant of the yr for the Historic Neighborhood and by Omicron Delta Kappa, the nationwide management society. He’s a member of Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society and the Order of Omega Greek honor society.
Corby says he grew to become deeply considering training throughout his first yr at Elon when he shadowed a neighborhood third-grade instructor for 30 hours as a part of an training class. “I’ve taken that love for training and progress to my actions at Elon, utilizing the lens of upper training and scholar authorities to see the identical energy training has, each out and in of the classroom,” Corby says. “I’m excited to take this love for training to Bulgaria by means of my Fulbright.”
Corby is wanting ahead to seeing one other nation’s system of training firsthand as an English educating assistant, and he expects to be challenged in new and other ways in the course of the yr to come back. “Instructional coverage is one thing I’ve discovered a ardour for whereas serving as scholar physique president and taking totally different programs right here at Elon,” Corby says. “Whereas I do know Elon has ready me very effectively for this expertise, I anticipate to develop as a scholar and a world neighborhood member.”
Samantha Dominguez ‘22
A biomedical engineering main and member of the Elon ladies’s soccer group, Samantha Dominguez might be educating English within the Czech Republic by means of the Fulbright program. Dominguez is an Honors Fellow and member of Phi Beta Kappa from Keller, Texas, who was a Colonial Athletic Affiliation Institutional Scholar-Athlete of the Yr for 2021-22. She studied in Italy throughout her senior yr, participated within the senior class giving effort and as a volunteer with the It Takes a Village Venture, Particular Olympics and the YMCA soccer program.
As an undergraduate researcher, she is considering range, fairness and inclusion in STEM training, and she or he is appreciative of the function that the Fulbright Program performs in selling cultural understanding. “We, as people, should perceive what issues and experiences make us totally different from one another in several cultures, and why these issues actually make us extra comparable than totally different,” Dominguez says. “This award is a chance with boundless implications as a result of tales and data that I share with individuals I’ll meet within the Czech Republic will result in additional understanding and empathy. That will make all of the distinction sooner or later on the street to a extra interconnected world.”
Dominguez expects her expertise within the Czech Republic by means of Fulbright will put her capability to collaborate and alternate concepts to the check on a world scale.” I hope to enter medical analysis sooner or later, and solely by working collectively and sharing diagnoses, tales and information will my colleagues be capable to save lives and enhance the well being of our sufferers,” she says. “I hope I’ll achieve a broader on what the world holds and my place in it by the point that I return from my expertise within the Czech Republic.”
Deena Elrefai ’22
Deena Elrefai, who’s double majoring in public well being research and worldwide and world research, has obtained a Fulbright Award to show English in Uruguay. From Leesburg, Virginia, Erefai is an Elon Faculty Fellow and member of Phi Beta Kappa who obtained the Lumen Prize. She’s additionally a member of the Sigma Delta Pi, Sigma Iota Rho and Kappa Omicron Nu honor societies, and has been a Periclean Scholar. Throughout her time at Elon she has labored within the Workplace of Admissions as a range ambassador and as an admissions intern for range and entry.
She is a facilitator for the Elon Problem by means of Experiential Studying and Out of doors Adventures, and is a scholar member of the Well being, Fairness and Racism Lab by means of the Public Well being Research Division. She is going to start her time as a Fulbright educating assistant in March 2023 after working for Borderlinks, a program centered on training surrounding refugees, migrants and border points.
Elrefai says that her expertise with analysis at Elon has been one of the vital transformative experiences of her undergraduate training. “Whereas I’ve at all times had an curiosity in world growth, my time in Alamance County has given me a selected curiosity and give attention to native engagement that can serve me effectively as I transfer into my profession with a give attention to asset-based, sustainable neighborhood work,” she says.
She has dreamed of being chosen for a Fulbright award all through her time at Elon as a result of this system encourages cultural alternate and studying in a approach that brings collectively her pursuits and her ardour for experiential training. “I’m so grateful to the entire superb mentors and assist that I’ve had during the last 4 years at Elon, and I can’t wait to pursue this superb alternative,” Elrefai says. “The Fulbright will assist me develop my abilities in cultural humility and permit me to expertise a brand new tradition within the area I’ve change into so captivated with finding out. I’m wanting ahead to the cultural alternate between the U.S. and Uruguay, and supporting the Fulbright’s mission of training and alternate overseas.”
India Kirssin ‘21
Alumna India Kirssin, initially from Mason, Ohio, has obtained a Fulbright Award to show English in Argentina. A global and world research main with a Latin American focus, Kirssin was an Elon Faculty Fellow, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and of Sigma Delta Pi honor societies and a recipient of the Brian Digre Worldwide International Research Excellent Scholar Award. A member of ladies’s membership soccer and Intervarsity, she was a college tour information and volunteered with Household Abuse Companies and with English Language Learners. She studied in Peru throughout Winter Time period 2019.
A visit to Spain throughout highschool developed in her a love of the power to study a brand new language and use it to kind distinctive relationships. “This love continued all through my time at Elon as I studied Spanish and rapidly grew to become passionate in regards to the historical past, politics and tradition of Latin America by means of my research and my travels to Peru,” Kirssin says.
Kirssin was finding out in Argentina when the pandemic hit, which introduced an abrupt finish to her world expertise that semester. “I grew to become extra decided than ever to make it again to Latin America to dwell, work and proceed enhancing my Spanish abilities,” Kirssin says. “These experiences have collectively formed my journey as a language learner, a scholar and an Elon alum working towards my skilled objectives.”
Kirssin was chosen as an alternate for the Fulbright program final spring and has spent the previous yr working as an English instructor in Spain, making it much more significant to be chosen this yr to return to Argentina as an English educating assistant. “This award validates my arduous work, perseverance and flexibility over the previous few years as I’ve labored to perform my objectives,” Kirssin says. “I’m grateful to have the chance to be a consultant of the U.S. and to proceed the rewarding work of educating English and sharing my tradition whereas I immerse myself in my college students’ tradition by means of Fulbright. As somebody considering a future profession in worldwide coverage and affairs, this grant will assist me obtain these objectives by persevering with to problem and alter my understanding of the world, and the house English audio system and U.S. coverage and tradition maintain in it, as I dwell and work overseas and create my very own neighborhood in one other tradition.”
Tasia Theoharis ‘22
After double-majoring in political science and worldwide and world research, Tasia Theoharis might be educating English in Germany by means of the Fulbright Program. Initially from Hastings, Nebraska, Theoharis is an Elon Faculty Fellow and Provost Scholar who’s a member of a number of honor societies — Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Iota Rho and Delta Phi Alpha. She was content material editor of The Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics, she labored with Elon Votes! and volunteered as an English as a Second Language tutor at Alamance Neighborhood Faculty.
Her household hosted a number of alternate college students when she was rising up, which supplied an avenue to find out about different international locations and cultures and instilled in her the need for journey and cross-cultural connection. These experiences helped lead her to majors at Elon in addition to her research of German and her pursuit of the Fulbright Award.
Theoharis will attend the College of Superior Worldwide Research at Johns Hopkins College to pursue a grasp’s diploma in worldwide relations following her time as a instructor by means of Fulbright.
“The chance to function an English educating assistant is a welcome problem, Theoharis says. “I’m excited to exit of my consolation zone and achieve a deeper understanding of the German tradition. For years, I’ve studied German within the classroom, however the likelihood to wholly immerse myself into the language is an unparalleled alternative to study.”
Via the Fulbright Award, Theoharis anticipates placing her previous 4 years of educational work into apply. “Serving as a cultural ambassador to the USA, connecting with college students within the classroom, and experiencing the German tradition will bridge what I’ve realized educationally with real-world experiences,” Theoharis says. “In my future profession working in worldwide relations, my expertise residing overseas and integrating myself right into a German neighborhood will give me an understanding of non-American methods of life in a approach I couldn’t earlier than. I do know I’ll come out of my time serving as an English educating assistant as a extra succesful world citizen and thinker than earlier than.”
Additionally receiving awards this yr had been Miso Kim ’22, Allison Potter ’22 and Angela Myers ’21, with every declining the award to pursue different alternatives.
4 Elon college students and alumni had been named alternates for Fulbright awards this yr. As alternates, these might be promoted to finalist standing if extra funding turns into accessible. Alternates this yr are:
- Sadie Traylor ‘21 (English Instructing Assistant, Laos)
- Emily Katz ’22 (English Instructing Assistant, Spain)
- Catherine Stallsmith ’22 (English Instructing Assistant, North Macedonia)
- Cameron Wilson ‘21 (English Instructing Assistant, Colombia)
Rising seniors who’re considering making use of for a Fulbright US Scholar grant within the subsequent competitors cycle ought to contact the Nationwide and Worldwide Fellowships Workplace as quickly as attainable.
