Every year, a new class of Whitman graduates finds itself out in the proverbial “real-world,” working, traveling or pursuing other post-graduate options. For the class of 2007, a large number of the newly graduated have opted to pursue a combination thereof: teaching English to students in foreign countries, often with the aid of a Fulbright scholarship.
The Fulbright Awards for Graduate Study are awarded every year to students intending to study/research abroad. Typically, the award will cover transportation, tuition, and living costs for a year of study in the student’s intended destination. Out of roughly 5,000 applicants annually, only 900 are accepted, 10 of which were Whitman alumni.
Eight of those 10 were members of the class of ’07: Daniel Beekman, Eric Cates, Ezra Fox, Kyle Martz, Megan McConville, Katherine Pease, Ari van Schilfgaarde and Veronica Willeto were all awarded scholarships, often based on the work that they did as undergraduates while studying abroad. Furthermore, Whitman Alumnae Tanya Henderson ’05 and Emily Marr ’04 were also awarded Fulbrights. Whitman ranks very well in the number of Fulbrights awarded. Out of bachelor-level institutions, Whitman ranked 21st nationally, behind several much larger institutions.
While the Fulbright can be used for any form of research/study, Fox, Martz, Pease and Schilfgaarde are all taking up teaching positions, primarily as English instructors/teaching assistants. Fox plans to teach in Malaysia, while documenting his travels and cultural experiences.
Pease and Schilfgaarde are also headed to Asia, albeit for very different destinations; Pease will be a teachers assistant in Korea, as well as volunteering for local community improvement programs. Schilfgaarde will teach English to high school students in Indonesia, as well as studying local development politics and the integration of western resources with traditional ways of life.
Cates and Martz are the only awardees teaching somewhere other than Asia, with Martz teaching English as a second language in Germany and Cates similarly teaching ESL in Spain.
Although not teaching, Beekman is returning to China, where he spent a semester his junior year and tutored a Chinese middle-schooler. Beekman, an anthropology major, will be studying the way in which the Chinese government presents itself to the world as it prepares for the 2008 Olympic games. As he said, “For better or worse, the Games will punctuate China’s quest for modernization and global legitimacy.”
Regardless of location, cross-cultural communication and growth is an important factor in most students’ decision to pursue such a course of study. Fox, who majored in philosophy, looks forward to studying in a Muslim country, which he feels will be an excellent cross-cultural learning experience.
In addition, many other students are pursuing similar courses without the support of something like a Fulbright but through regular exchange programs, such as the Japanese Emersion and Training program or Whitman In China. Brett Rawson ’07 is currently teaching English to Japanese students as part of the JET program, teaching students of all ages. Rawson says that he has learned much from his students, although he admitted that there was a little culture
