Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2009
FULBRIGHT FELLOWSHIPS SEND FOUR STUDENTS ACROSS THE GLOBE
By Rick Peterson
With its unique blend of time-honored traditions and ultra modern conveniences, Japan has held a special fascination for Chiara Terzuolo ’09 since she first read about the island nation as a middle school student. Beginning this September, Terzuolo will immerse herself in Japan’s dichotomous culture during a year-long research fellowship as a 2009-10 Fulbright Scholar.
The U.S. government’s premier scholarship program, the Fulbright program has provided research and teaching opportunities for nearly 300,000 American students, scholars, and other professionals in more than 150 countries since its creation by Congress in 1946. This spring, four Lawrence University students were added to the list of fellowship recipients.
While Terzuolo was awarded a research fellowship, Anna Hainze ’09, Jane Hulburt ’09 and Spencer Neitzel ’09 each will spend their first post-Lawrence year as Fulbright Scholars teaching and serving as unofficial goodwill ambassadors. “We are extremely proud of these students,” said David Burrows, provost and dean of the faculty. “They have shown the intellectual capacity, strength of character, and leadership ability that are the core qualities of liberally educated persons. Our goal is to have our students become effective citizen-leaders, and it is clear these students have taken a large step toward achieving that goal.”
Three of the four students will be returning to countries they have previously visited while on study-abroad programs. Terzuolo spent five months at Japan’s Kanda University in 2008. Terzuolo, who graduated in June with a degree in East Asian studies, will use her fellowship for an exploration of how classical Western music and traditional Japanese music interact in a modern context. “I want to see what similarities and contrasts exist not only in teaching methods, but also in performance and social interactions between music students and professors,” said Terzuolo, who hails from Rome. “I hope to discover how the two genres influence each other and what boundaries they may have set.”
As part of her exploration of the relationship between classical and traditional music, Terzuolo plans to take lessons on the koto, one of Japan’s most traditional musical instruments for women. Her first exposure to the koto came during her study-abroad program, when she interned as a Shinto shrine maiden and got to practicethe 13-string zither-like instrument with the shrine’s sacred ensemble. “That was an unbelievably rare experience, especially for someone who is not Japanese,” said Terzuolo, who will use a Japanese conservatory, preferably one in Osaka, as a base for her research. “That’s what led me to apply for the Fulbright. Traditional musical training used to be the prerogative of a closed system of ’iemoto,’ but Japanese conservatories are now offering courses in ’hogaku’ (traditional music) alongside the usual Western-based options,” added Terzuolo, who counts Japanese among five languages she speaks. “By basing myself at one of these music schools, I’ll have the opportunity to study how the classical and traditional worlds interact.”
Music figures to play a prominent role in Hulburt’s Fulbright experience as well. She plans to incorporate her double major in music and German with her piano-playing skills and vocal experiences with the Lawrence Jazz Singers and the Concert Choir into her English language lessons as a teaching assistant at a secondary school in Crimmitschau, Germany. “I’ve always been interested in teaching, and this is the ultimate teaching experience,” said Hulburt. “I’ve also had a long-standing interest in German culture, so the opportunity to go to Germany and teach is going to be the best of both worlds for me.”
The Fulbright fellowship will support Hulburt’s third trip to Germany in the past six years. She spent the summer of 2003 in Bavaria through her high school’s German-American Partnership Program and as an LU junior participated in a study-abroad program in Freiburg. She sees her latest visit as a life experience, not just a teaching opportunity.
“I’ll be working in an environment where English isn’t the first language,” said Hulburt, of Appleton. “This is going to take me out of my comfort zone, but in a good way, and help me grow as a person. I’m ready to move on to the next chapter in my life.”
Germany also will be Neitzel’s new address for nine months starting in September, when he begins an appointment as an English language assistant in Hamburg. He says his lesson plans will likely focus less on grammar and more on the application of the language and the study of American culture. “I’m interested in the differences and similarities between American and German culture, and this will be a great opportunity to explore those,” said Neitzel, a German and psychology major from Northfield, Minn. “I’m hoping to learn more and think seriously about my own identity as an American, since I will be representing the United States.”
The Fulbright program doesn’t require extensive teaching experience, a fact Neitzel found appealing, and that helped persuade him to apply for the fellowship. “You learn first-hand the pedagogy in Germany is different than here in the states,” said Neitzel, who spent time in Freiburg as an exchange student in 2005. “It’s an intense program, but it also does a great job of helping you find out what you want to do with your life.”
Hulburt and Neitzel will be teaching assistants in Germany, but Hainze, of Whitefish Bay, Wis., was awarded a college-level teaching appointment in the English department at the Central University of Venezuela in the capital city of Caracas. She got her first taste of South American culture during a study-abroad program in Argentina in 2007. This time around she will be spending 10 months in Venezuela after being awarded one of only three Fulbright fellowships available for that country. “I had a positive experience in Argentina, and when I investigated the Fulbright program, South America really appealed to me. The fact that I’ve never been to Venezuela before makes this all the more exciting,” said Hainze, who earned a degree in Spanish with minors in Latin American studies, history and music. “I really enjoy teaching and thought this would be a great opportunity to see if that’s a career path I want to pursue.”
Just like her three fellow recipients, Hainze, a three-year writing and Spanish language tutor in Lawrence’s Center for Teaching and Learning, sees her Fulbright scholarship as a springboard for her life as it has been for other Fulbright alumni, who have become heads of state, ambassadors, CEOs and university presidents. Thirty-seven Fulbright alumni have gone on to earn Nobel Prizes. “I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me,” Hainze said.
