Fogarty headed to Taiwan on Fulbright
Senior Billie Fogarty has earned a highly competitive Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award (ETA) to work full-time at a school in Taiwan.
This elementary education major from Fort Collins, Colorado, will be in Taiwan for 11 months, including a one-month orientation in August before the school year begins.
Fogarty and her classmate, Greta Henderson, bring the total number of Fulbrights awarded to Cornell graduates in the past 11 years to 19.
What will you be doing in Taiwan?
As an ETA, I will be in school 35 hours a week, most likely in an elementary or middle school. I will be assisting a local English teacher or teaching independently, while also helping to create educational materials for teaching English and discussing American cultural issues. I will also be completing service work to get engaged with the community, which will provide me with a great opportunity to see life outside of the classroom. The award includes a monthly stipend, housing arrangements, round-trip airfare, and health insurance.
What does this opportunity mean to you?
This opportunity means so much to me that it is difficult to put it into words. My path toward finding my future career throughout college has been a rocky one; I came in as a first-year student uncertain about where my passions lay, but thinking that I would study biology and end up in a health-related field. Over the summer before my junior year, I switched to elementary education and finally felt that I was on the right track. While the future I had originally envisioned did not go as planned, I always knew that working abroad was something that I wanted to fit into the picture. I knew that I wanted to go abroad, but rather than just being a tourist I wanted to make some contribution of my own to the community I was experiencing. Receiving the Fulbright ETA award after months of waiting and doubting felt like a way to make this long-awaited dream come true.
How do you think this trip will impact your future?
I am beyond excited to immerse myself in an entirely new culture and cannot wait to learn about the education system in Taiwan. I think this trip will impact my future by giving me the skills to connect with people from different backgrounds and to adapt to new environments, skills which I will undoubtedly use in my future teaching positions.
What was the application process like?
Director of the Dungy Writing Studio and Director of Fellowships and Scholarships Laura Farmer helped immensely with the process; she was the person who told me about Fulbright and has been there for me every step of the way. I began the application process in late spring of last year, deciding which country I wanted to apply for over the summer and finalizing my application at the beginning of the school year. Laura was always there to answer any questions I had, talk through the process, and read the numerous drafts of my application along the way. Without her support, I would not have had the confidence to apply for the Fulbright in the first place, much less see myself successful at the end of the process.
I am grateful for the support group I have found at Cornell. Without my friends and mentors here, I never would have attempted to apply for something as competitive as the Fulbright. The unwavering support of the people around me has given me the confidence to take a chance, and I would like to thank them for helping me attain this opportunity.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The Program operates in over 160 countries worldwide.
