Five Santa Clara Seniors Receive Fulbright Scholarship
Bronco Fulbright recipients will work abroad during the 2023-2024 academic year to explore language, culture and the environment in foreign communities
Five students from Santa Clara’s graduating class of 2023 received U.S. Fulbright Student grants, according to a press release from May 4. Sebastian Acevedo, Rachel Chung, Teresa Contino, Octavio De Leon and Ariana Tabrizi will spend the next year abroad teaching and conducting research.
The U.S. Fulbright Student Program is a grant open to United States citizens or nationals who will have received a bachelor's degree when the grant period begins. The program partners with over 140 countries worldwide and sends participants to study, research or teach English in communities abroad. Each year about 2,200 U.S. college students are awarded the grant.
The five Broncos who will begin their grant period in the fall each come from different academic disciplines, but all aim to use their Santa Clara education in foreign communities.
Rachel Chung, a graduating finance and political science double major, will teach English in Taiwan during her grant period. Her time at Santa Clara specifically emphasized the connection between language and identity, which she hopes will benefit her during her teaching tenure. After the Fulbright program, Chung hopes to pursue a master's degree in international relations and focus her research on the presence of Chinese diasporic communities in the European Union.
My desire to explore my Chinese heritage and better grasp my biracial and multiethnic identity is what drew me to apply for the Fulbright. While I have been able to explore my Italian and French heritage firsthand through frequent family visits to Europe, I have never been to Asia before. The upper-division political science courses that I took at Santa Clara ultimately helped confirm my interest in a program that fosters global dialogue and mutual understanding through the power of global diplomacy. It was my Arabic and Chinese language courses, French courses, Italian civic engagement course and study abroad experience in Milan that initially led me towards the program by helping me develop a deeper appreciation for the role that languages and culture play in shaping my own identity. Courses such as Introduction to the South Asian Experience in the U.S., Politics in the Middle East, U.S. Foreign Policy, the European Union, the French-speaking World, Immigration in Italian Film and Literature and Chinese and Arabic Language and Culture have taught me to look at the world through an open lens of compassion and critical thinking. These courses have helped me realize that language and culture are tightly interconnected with identity and that in order to communicate effectively, one needs to be a good listener.
Teresa Contino, a senior English and Psychology double major, will travel to the Czech Republic to work as an English teaching assistant. Ever since traveling to Prague as a high school student she has been drawn to the area. After the grant period, she will attend the Applied Cognitive Psychology: User Experience Master’s Program at Claremont Graduate University to continue her work and research in the psychology field.
I look forward to inspiring young Czech students, who may not normally imagine themselves as creatives or writers, to make their voices heard. Random bursts of inspiration, such as my car ride to Prague five years ago, can serendipitously ease the process of discovery and education. I look forward to making the most of small moments of observation to further both my learning experiences and those of students. My position as Editor-in-Chief of the Santa Clara Review has inspired my interest in creating smooth publishing experiences for contemporary and diverse writers. I look forward to supporting students’ creative writing with an eye toward publication for global audiences and hopefully attending or hosting community literary events. My double major inspired my understanding of writing as a reflective and metacognitive process that enacts conversation between people. I have worked closely with Dr. Lueck on various projects that grew out of the classroom, such as a digital project that guides historiographers to organize archival work with nonlinear, feminist design practices. Similarly, I’ve worked with Dr. Turner on a research project that explores the pedagogy of user experience. I hope to use these experiences to preserve underrepresented writers’ work, including young Czech voices. With their consent, I’d love to anthologize students’ writing in a larger digital collection to foster self-expression and circulate their work to a global audience.
Octavio De Leon is another English major participating in the Fulbright program as an English teaching assistant in Mexico. He was inspired to apply for the program because of the encouragement of his academic advisor, Dr. Simone Billings, and his work as a Canterbury Scholar. De Leon does not know what grade level he will be working with during his time with the Fulbright, but he feels prepared to support the students he is placed with because of his course and work experience. As an English major and theater and political science double minor he has taken extensive coursework that will relate to his time in Mexico.
Last spring I started working on my Canterbury project. Working on that independent research made me think that it would be exciting to do something like that in the future. Dr. Simone Billings and Dr. Denise Krane, my academic advisor for the Canterbury project, helped me start to imagine what it'd be like to do a project like this. Working at the HUB writing center was a huge part of my program application and my proposal in general. English 113, Writing Center Theory and Practices, helped me to think about World Englishes and what good writing instructions are. All of the elementary English courses like 14, 15 and 16 were really great too–breaking down the stigmas around language. The political science classes on politics in Latin America made me really excited to be immersed in the culture. Of course, the Spanish classes I've taken prepared me to live in a place where I'm going to be challenged to speak Spanish all the time.”
Ariana Tabrizi will also be teaching English abroad at the start of the 2023-2024 grant period. She will work and conduct research in southern Italy and looks forward to being able to spend a significant amount of time outside of the United States. Her experience as a double major in ethnic studies and history will benefit her as she supports English students in Italy. After the grant period she hopes to continue studying and pursue a master’s degree. She believes that her time during the Fulbright program will help guide her decision.
I felt like going on a study abroad program was too short for the kind of immersion that I wanted, so the Fulbright was another amazing option to consider that was more along the timeline that I envisioned. Between the classes I've taken in the Italian department to the critical thinking, reading and writing skills I've gained in the History and Ethnic Studies department, I'd say that these skills will help me learn through the students that I teach and the people that I meet as well as allow me to stay open to have them learn more about American culture through me and be a helpful English teaching assistant.
Sebastian Acevedo was unavailable for an interview.