Azusa, Calif.—Each year, hundreds of students compete for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship but only a select few receive the award. This year, recent Azusa Pacific University graduate Kelsey Maass, was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Andorra, a small principality on the border of Spain and France in the Pyrenees Mountains.
Maass has been teaching herself Catalan, one of the languages spoken in the area in addition to Spanish and French. Maass graduated summa cum laude in May from Azusa Pacific with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and minors in Spanish and philosophy.
Maass joins 13 APU alumni who have studied abroad with a Fulbright Grant, and adds Andorra to the list of countries visited by her fellow APU Fulbright scholars: Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Romania, Slovakia, Tunisia, and Turkey. Most received ETAs or research and study grants to Asian countries, but even students who did not garner awards gained valuable experience just by participating in the application process.
"Applying for the Fulbright Program is important practice for job applications and interviews, and is an amazing growth process," said Guido, APU Fulbright Program director.
A Fulbright Award on her résumé gives Maass several options for future careers, and she's keeping those options open for the time being. "I'm not sure if I will continue teaching English after next year. My decision will be influenced by my experience in Andorra," said Maass, who majored in mathematics and may also study statistics in graduate school to pursue a more research-related career. "If I do stay with teaching, it will be a great opportunity to interact with a variety of people from different cultures."
The ETA program places U.S. students as English teaching assistants in schools or universities overseas, serving two purposes: improving foreign students' English language abilities and knowledge of the United States and increasing the Fulbright student's understanding of the host country's culture and language.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and offers scholarship opportunities for recent graduates, postgraduate candidates, and developing professionals and artists to conduct career-launching study and research abroad. Each year, Fulbright offers more than 1,200 American grantees the ability to study abroad. Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills.
