16 May 2019 Kellett '19 Selected for Fulbright, Teach for America

Cynthia Kellett '19 has earned a 2019 U.S. Student Fulbright Award to Germany, where she will serve as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) beginning in September. Upon her return from the U.S. Governments flagship international exchange program, Kellett will begin her tenure with Teach for America, which selected her in October.

An international relations major and history and German area studies double-minor, Kellett recalls that during her first year at HWS, she worked directly with two Fulbright Teaching Assistants "who introduced me to the German culture and its complex nature. Encouraged by those experiences, learning the language and working with Fulbright recipients, she spent her entire junior year abroad in Bremen, Germany, where her passion for the culture and language I have studied for the past few years was reaffirmed."

While in Bremen, Kellett found that "becoming part of a new community allowed me to become more open-minded as to how other people live and how it is up to me to adjust how I will fit into it. When society can align its goals with the multiplicity of cultures and experiences in mind, we can achieve so much more than we would otherwise." She was inspired to return to Germany, this time as an ETA in order to continue to develop these new perspectives that I gained in Bremen.

Hoping to pursuing a career in education, Kellett applied to the Fulbright program for "an incredible introduction to that field and how my skills can be applied both at home and abroad. This opportunity to develop both socially and career-wise, she says, will give me the experience I need to grow as a teacher and to strengthen these cross-cultural relationships I wish to make during my time in Germany."

With that experience, she will return to the U.S. to teach middleschool science in Charlotte, N.C., with Teach for America, the national nonprofit that places young leaders committed to expanding educational opportunity in under-resourced public schools.

A member of the Laurel Society, Kellett earned a Julius G. Blocker '53 Fellowship that supported her studies abroad in Germany. She is a recipient of an HWS Faculty Scholarship and the Robert M. Hess '76 Scholarship Fund Award and has been named to the William Smith Dean's List.

On campus, Kellett serves as a programming assistant at the HWS Center for Global Education and the Geneva 2020 House Manager, and was previously a coordinator for America Reads and an office assistant at the Colleges' Center for Civic Engagement and Service Learning.

Kellett is one of six HWS students to receive at 2019 Fulbright Award. Profiles of the other 2019 recipients will be published on the HWS Update throughout the spring semester.

Created in 1949, the Fulbright program is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and numerous nations around the world. Participants are chosen for their academic merit and leadership qualities, and are given the opportunity to study, live, teach and conduct research abroad for one year in order to exchange ideas and seek solutions to shared global concerns.

In 2018, for the third year in a row, Hobart and William Smith were recognized as one of the nation's top colleges and universities with the most recipients of U.S. Fulbright Student Awards.

HWS students interested in applying for Fulbright awards should contact the Salisbury Center for Career, Professional and Experiential Education at cso@hws.edu.