By Allison Lozada—
Jennie David, 21, English and secondary education major from Jersey City, has recently been bestowed the U.S. Student Fulbright award for 2012-2013. Receiving this award will allow her to travel to South Korea to teach children at no cost to her.
“The award provides travel, training in Korean language/culture and teaching techniques, as well as a home stay while in the country,” said David, “I will be teaching… as an English teacher in a secondary education setting in South Korea for one year.”
When asked if applying for the award was a struggle, David answered, “Not precisely. The hardest part was writing the essays, as they took a lot of time and had strict requirements.”
The Fulbright award was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress. The award is the largest international exchange program in the country, extremely competitive, and known in 155 countries. The research grant and English Teaching Assistantship grant are the two awards at NJCU that students can apply to. There is also no need for a certification in Education to apply for the ETA grant.
A project needed to be proposed before her trip and she decided to shed light on a topic that needs awareness. “I came up with the idea about teaching against cyberbullying, as it is a prominent issue among young people in South Korea,” explained David.
According to Irma Maini, Fulbright Academic Advisor for NJCU, students who can apply are: “any student who is a U.S. citizen; will have a BA at the start of the grant; and has leadership qualities and academic merit.”
David demonstrated her excitement for her trip to South Korea. “My friends and I were actually dreaming … of going to Korea and now I get to go for a year.” This doesn’t mean she is ready to leave everything and everyone behind. “I’m going to miss my family and friends. My family is close and I’ve really never left them to go away by myself for longer than two weeks.”
Despite leaving her family, David is still moving forward with her education and hopes to accomplish much more. “Aside from teaching and learning about the Korean culture and language, I plan to travel a lot while I am there… When I return home, I plan to find a teaching job and apply… teaching techniques I’ve learned over there.”
If you are interested in applying for this grant, applications are due mid October 2012. To apply for the Fulbright award, you must contact Irma Maini at [email protected].
Although, the applications are due mid-October, you must be willing to work on your application through summer. There will also be a workshop held for the Fulbright Grants on Monday April 30th in GSUB Room 129 from 1:00pm-2:00pm.
