9 minute read
WORDLY WISE
FULBRIGHT GRADUATES MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT ACROSS THE GLOBE
By Janel Shoun-Smith
WHEN SEN. J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT FIRST ESTABLISHED THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S FULBRIGHT PROGRAM IN 1946, HE HAD A NOBLE GOAL: “THE ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS OF A REGIME MORE CIVILIZED, RATIONAL AND HUMANE THAN THE EMPTY SYSTEM OF POWER OF THE PAST” (FROM FULBRIGHT’S THE PRICE OF EMPIRE).
Sen. Fulbright admitted that his was “a modest program with an immodest aim.” However, 73 years after the program was signed into law by Pres. Harry S. Truman, it has grown to become one of the most prestigious scholarship programs in the world with grants that support graduate study, teaching, relations and research in 140 countries.
Over the years, Fulbright scholars and students nationwide have gone on to win Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, to be recognized as geniuses by the MacArthur Foundation and to become heads of state.
Like Sen. Fulbright, Lipscomb has its own immodestly grand vision to impact the world for good, and in 2019 the university’s efforts produced an unprecedented harvest with five Fulbright fellowships awarded to Lipscomb students and alumni.
Lipscomb has been the common denominator for 17 scholars throughout the decades who have served in, studied, taught and worked professionally in more than 22 nations. Twelve of these were awarded in the modern age, since 2006.
Nicole Marton ('16), Fulbright fellow who was placed as a teaching assistant in Moldova.
Submitted photo
In the past 13 years, 12 students or alumni have been selected for Fulbright fellowships from the U.S. state department.
They have participated in Teach for America and in Americorps; they have studied at Georgetown, Cambridge and Oxford; they have worked at U.S. embassies, foreign media outlets, nonprofit community organizations and universities. And the most recent ones are studying to be the future doctors, lawyers and activists who shape our world of the future.
From international health to access to education, from human rights law to international affairs, Lipscomb’s Fulbrights are working toward Fulbright’s “hopeful future for humankind.”
CHANGING THE WORLD ONE RELATIONSHIP AT A TIME
Lipscomb’s global focus is growing stronger. Not only through Lipscomb’s academic, missions, global study and social entrepreneurship programs, but also through Courtney “Coco” Stewart, who developed a healthy living curriculum for an elementary school in a small town in Spain.
And through Jared Brett, a master’s graduate who analyzed the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation for the U.S. cultural attaché in Indonesia.
There is Bethany Eldridge, who went to the Netherlands to research Open Education Resources as a way to boost access to education for women and girls.
And Nicole Marton, who in addition to teaching English at a university in Moldova, held English conversation clubs for community members.
All of Lipscomb's recent undergraduate fellows, 9 in total, were enrolled in Lipscomb’s Honors College.
These are a few of Lipscomb’s Fulbright fellows, students and alumni selected by the U.S. Department of State to change the world one relationship at a time.
In the past 15 years, the university has allocated more resources to student research, study abroad, rigorous honors study, service-learning opportunities and programs designed to embrace the study of language alongside another major.
Those allocations have paid off with 12 students and alumni receiving Fulbright placements in Austria, Colombia, Moldova, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Greece and Uruguay over the past 13 years. In 2019, Lipscomb celebrated a record five Fulbright scholarships awarded to students or alumni in one year.
7 fellows participated in Lipscomb’s semester-long programs in Vienna, Austria, and Santiago, Chile while at Lipscomb.
A Fulbright award can open possibilities for prestigious graduate schools or for a career in diplomatic service, said Prill.
In fact, two of Lipscomb’s most recent Fulbright recipients have gone on to study at Georgetown University, one earned a degree from Cambridge University and one plans to attend medical school after she completes a one-year research placement at the National Institutes of Health. One Lipscomb Fulbright has served as a foreign service officer in U.S. embassies for a decade.
More students now arrive on campus with impressive travel and service experiences and are then bolstered by Lipscomb’s global travel and service-learning programs.
Hannah Minor had lived in the Bahamas with her family before coming to Lipscomb; Brett spent six weeks in the Middle East. Experiences such as those were galvanized by Lipscomb’s semester-long study programs in Austria and Chile (and now London and Costa Rica are also offered).
3 Lipscomb Fulbrights were also Nashville Teach For America corps members.
According to the Office of Global Learning, more than 400 Lipscomb students participated in global study in more than 34 cities around the world in the 2018-19 school year.
Lipscomb’s Fulbrights also took full advantage of required internships, service-learning opportunities and Nashville’s state capital status to be involved in community engagement and activism during their college years.
Eldridge interned at Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s office for the assistant for special projects. Lila Banach volunteered at the Nashville International Center for Empowerment as an English teacher in refugee classrooms. Katie Jacoby was an AmeriCorps volunteer for a month in Philadelphia. Anissa Plattner spent a year in Los Angeles with the Episcopal Service Corps.
Personal mentorship by Lipscomb’s faculty also spurred many of these students to seek the Fulbright opportunity, they said.
“I can’t imagine having gone to school anywhere else and forming these kinds of relationships not only with my fellow classmates but with my superiors who have become my mentors,” said Marton.
3 fellows have studied or worked in Washington D.C.: one at the U.S. State Department, one at Georgetown University and one at the National Institutes of Health.
MEET LIPSCOMB’S MOST RECENT FULBRIGHTS
Emily Royse Green (’06), an English and German major from Columbus, Ohio, worked as a Fulbright student in Vienna, Austria, in 2006-07. Green earned a master’s degree from Georgetown University and then began a decade-long career as a foreign service officer for the U.S. Department of State, working in embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel, Conakry, Guinea, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. She also served a stint in the Office of International Health and Biodefense in the Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science.
Katie Jacoby
Photo by Kristi Jones
Katie Jacoby (’09), an English and Spanish major from Mason, Ohio, taught English in Bogota, Colombia, in her 2009-10 Fulbright year. She married a Colombian and continues to work as a translator and write for an English-language newspaper in Bogota.
Bethany Eldridge (’12), a law, justice and society major from Henderson, Tennessee, spent her 2012-13 Fulbright year in Maastricht, the Netherlands, where she earned a master’s degree in society, science and technology, studying educational opportunities for girls in developing countries. Afterwards, she worked for several nonprofit organizations in California and Nashville until moving to Great Britain to earn a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge in education, globalization and international development. She then worked for VisionFund, a microfinance institution to empower women and their families in Nashville, until August, when she began Ph.D. studies at the University of Michigan on a Rackham Merit Fellowship.
Jared Brett (’12), a Master of Education graduate through the Teach For America program, spent the 2013-14 year teaching English in Indonesia. During his placement, he also wrote an analysis of the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, the Fulbright affiliate in Indonesia, for the U.S. cultural attaché in Indonesia. The San Diego native graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s in psychology. He taught fifth grade at John Trotwood Moore Middle School for two years before leaving for his Fulbright fellowship. After his Fulbright year, Brett held various management positions in companies in Pennsylvania, California and Chicago, and is currently the technical project manager for McMaster-Carr in Chicago.
Nicole Marton
Submitted Photo
Nicole Marton (’16), a law, justice and society and German double major, from West Virginia, was Lipscomb’s 2016-17 Fulbright. She returned from a year teaching English in the departments of history and philology, and law and public administration at the State University of Cahul in Moldova to enter the international human rights law program at Georgetown University Law School. During her studies she has interned at the U.S. Department of Justice, the Health Justice Alliance and the New York City law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton.
Anissa Plattner
Submitted photo
Anissa Plattner (’16), an education graduate from Nashville, received a 2019 Fulbright placement to teach English at a university in Pereira, Colombia. Plattner is an English language development specialist for Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools in Los Angeles.
Courtney "Coco" Stewart
Submitted photo
Courtney “Coco” Stewart (’17), a Spanish and Bible double major from Houston, spent her 2017-18 Fulbright placement teaching English and creating a healthy living curriculum for a school in a small town in the La Rioja region of Spain. Her experiences confirmed her decision to pursue medical school. After taking some prerequisite courses at Lipscomb this past summer, she was accepted into a National Institutes of Health program and is spending a year researching health disparities in Washington, D.C., before pursuing medical school.
Hannah Minor
Photo by Kristi Jones
Hannah Minor (’17), an English and German major from Kennewick, Washington, spent her 2018-19 Fulbright placement teaching English in a school in Dresden, Germany. Before coming to Lipscomb, Minor had lived with her family in the Bahamas and began learning German there. While at Lipscomb she studied abroad in Vienna, Austria, and was a member of the English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta.
Lauren Borders
Lauren Borders (’18), a communication major from Duluth, Georgia, received a 2019 placement at the University of Montevideo, in Uruguay, to research political broadcast journalism. Borders now works as the digital and communications coordinator at Calvert Street Group in Nashville before her Fulbright fellowship starts in March 2020. During college, Borders studied abroad in Santiago, Chile, and chose to research journalism during the Chilean dictatorship. After her Fulbright year, she hopes to work in advocacy for prison or immigration reform or possibly pursue a graduate degree in political psychology.
Melissa Edberg (’18), a Master of Education graduate through Teach For America, received a 2019 Fulbright placement to teach English in Spain. The native of Wales, Massachusetts, and graduate of Worchester State University, served as the fifth-grade chair and social studies teacher at STEM Prep Academy Charter School in Nashville, until her placement began in September. She hopes the fellowship may be the first step on the ladder to becoming an ambassador for the United States someday.
Lila Banach (’19), an English graduate from Prattville, Alabama, received a 2019 placement in South Korea. Banach previously taught English in South Korea for the past two summers and left for her Fulbright placement in July. While an undergraduate, Banach started a Lipscomb chapter of Liberty in North Korea, a nonprofit that assists North Korean refugees. The group has raised more than $3,000 for the cause. She also volunteered at the Nashville International Center for Empowerment. While teaching in South Korea, Banach hopes to study “the relationship between Altaic languages like Korean, Turkish and Mongolian, and European languages like Basque and Finnish.”
Hannah Logsdon (’19), a Master of Education graduate with Teach For America, received a 2019 placement to teach English in Greece. The Lexington, Kentucky, native was the fourth-grade teacher at Purpose Preparatory Academy Charter School in Nashville until she left for her fellowship in August. Logsdon holds a bachelor’s in studio art from Transylvania University and pursued a fellowship because of its “emphasis on deep understanding between cultures and the openness to all the experiences life has to offer.”
