Izzy Hendry ‘14 wants to work toward a career in the Middle East teaching refugees — and she’s well on her way as a 2014 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant recipient. The fellowship gives her the ability to teach English, study Arabic, and find an internship doing what she loves most in Amman, Jordan.
“Scripps opened up a lot of options for me that I wasn’t aware existed, such as studying Arabic,” says Hendry, a foreign languages major from Atlanta, GA. “It helped me be open to new experiences and hungry to explore, both academically and outside the classroom.” She credits Professor Thierry Boucquey, whose Core III class offers experience in foreign language teaching, with awakening her interest in the field.
During her time at Scripps, Hendry served as president of the Arabic Club and pursued off-campus study opportunities in Granada, Spain. “Studying abroad helped me feel confident about choosing to live outside the United States for a year,” she says. “I met so many amazing people and had some very unique experiences that made me excited to live abroad in the future.”
Last May, Hendry traveled to Morocco on a Critical Language Scholarship from the US State Department. “I absolutely loved living in Morocco,” she says. “The language program was intense and exhausting at times, but it also improved my Arabic more than I thought possible in such a short period of time.”
Hendry put her foreign languages major and experience abroad to good use, capping her Scripps career with a thesis on the impact of linguistic imperialism on indigenous peoples and the educational theories being developed to break the cycle.
Reflecting on the Fulbright process itself, Hendry also credits the support of Scripps staff and faculty: “Scripps helped so much with the application process that the most stressful part was just waiting to hear back!”