“My education always led me back to Kauke”

Sarah Fuller ’95 can pinpoint when her interest in the Middle East began to blossom. She was staying with a French family the summer after her sophomore year of high school.

"They would probably be shocked to learn what prompted me to want to learn more about post-colonial North Africa," she says. "It was the blatant anti-Arab racism that I witnessed while I was in France."

A self-described "cradle Presbyterian," Fuller chose to pursue her interest at The College of Wooster. "While Wooster didn’t have a specialization in Middle Eastern studies, I knew that it had a strong political science department, and I could do pretty much anything I wanted for Independent Study," she says. "For my undergraduate degree, I wanted a real liberal arts experience— the specialization could wait until graduate school."

Today, Fuller is assistant director of the Egyptian field office of America-Mideast Educational and Training Services Inc. (AMIDEAST), a private, nonprofit organization that provides English language and professional skills training, administers educational exchange programs, and supports institutional development projects in the region.

Fuller’s I.S. on Islam and modernization in Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt served as a stepping stone for further research at the University of Texas at Austin, where she conducted a comparative study of democratic reforms in the three Mideastern countries for her master’s thesis. In addition, the writing skills she gained at Wooster and the ability to work closely with faculty served her well in graduate school.

Though nonprofit organizations are not known for their munificent salaries, Fuller said she believed it was important "to give back to the institution that gave me so much" by buying a brick to support the Kauke Hall renovation.

"My education always led back to Kauke," she says, "whether it was for my first advising session with Akwasi Osei, my first class with Mark Weaver, my I.S. meetings with Dijana Plestina, the I.S. march, and of course, graduation in the Oak Grove."

She smiles. "And there’s the ego thing. I like the idea of my name in stone on that wall."