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Paige Whitney ’17, an English major from Albany, Ill., has been selected to serve as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in a South Korean high school next year. Also pursuing minors in Japanese and Theatre, Paige has become involved in numerous facets of academic and co-curricular life at Carthage. She traveled to China to perform with the Carthage Treble Choir in 2015, put on a play at the CrisisArts Festival in Arezzo, Italy with students of the Theatre Department in 2016, and participated in the Kakehashi cultural exchange program in Japan during J-term 2017. She has performed in several plays on campus, was an English Department Fellow, and president of the Merely Players improvisational comedy troupe.

“I realized the way to consolidate my love of languages, traveling, and people would be to teach English abroad. I want to use my theatre and improvisational skills to become a more dynamic teacher, and to engage and challenge students,” she wrote in her application essay. In the South Korean classroom, she plans to utilize her background in music, acting, and improvisational performance to help students connect with the English language in an enjoyable and effective way. She would engage her students in impromptu public performances of American and Korean music to foster cultural exchange and to bring the classroom out in to the host community. After completing her Fulbright year, Paige hopes to continue teaching English and learning Korean for several years.

Although widely traveled in other East Asian countries, Paige has not yet visited South Korea. Her plan to adjust to a new cultural environment? Make friends. “Most importantly,” she wrote of her intentions for the Fulbright placement, “I want to meet new people and have them show me their favorite spots, going on little adventures, having conversations, and being taught by locals who would know best, sharing my own culture with them as I absorb the new.”

The Fulbright Fellowship is the premier program of cultural and educational exchange for American students, supported by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Congratulations to Paige Whitney on her Fulbright Fellowship!