APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University senior Katie Peacock had barely returned from a recent 10-day field study trip to Germany when she found out she will be heading back there, this time for a 10-month stay.
Peacock became the second Lawrence student this spring, and the eighth since 2001, to be named a 2008-09 Fulbright Scholar. She was awarded a $11,250 fellowship plus round-trip air fair that will send her to Germany in early September, where she will spend 10 months as a secondary school English teaching assistant. Peacock’s specific destination is yet to be determined.
A German and linguistics major at Lawrence, Peacock spent 10 days in Berlin during last month’s spring break as part of a class on the German city. The field study explored Berlin’s rich history and architecture through extensive daily walking tours. Shortly after returning to campus, she was notified she had been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.
“I was estastic,” said Peacock of Bennington, Vt., after learning she had been named a Fulbright Scholar. “I love languages and wanted to teach and this seemed like a great opportunity to do that. Plus, it was a chance for me to go back to Germany.”
For Peacock, the difference between ecstasy and agony was literally only a matter of hours. When she first explored the Fulbright last October, she discovered the on-campus application deadline was the next day. With the help of some gentle pleading, she received a short extension, but still had to write essays, collect faculty recommendations and track down transcripts in the span of a weekend.
“It was wild and I was freaking out a little bit, but everything worked out in the end,” said Peacock, who was inspired to apply for the fellowship by two Lawrence classmates who earned Fulbright fellowships to Germany in 2006 and 2007.
Her teaching assistantship will be Peacock’s fourth trip to Germany since 2004. In addition to the recent spring break visit, Peacock participated in a 16-week study-abroad program in Berlin in the fall of 2006 and spent a month at a language institute in Tubingen in southern Germany the summer following her high school graduation. Following her fellowship, Peacock hopes to pursue additional language study in graduate school.
“I eventually want to teach middle school or high school and help young people learn to love language as much as I do,” said Peacock, who is currently tutoring an Appleton seventh-grade student in German twice a week. “I want to see that transformation that takes place when someone learns a new language.”
Created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s premier scholarship program. Since its founding, it has supported opportunities for nearly 280,000 American students, scholars and other professionals in more than 155 countries. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, CEOs, university presidents, professors and teachers. Thirty-six Fulbright alumni have earned Nobel Prizes.
