Three Wooster Seniors Receive Fulbright Scholarships

Irene Rhine, Cora Hofstetter, and Clint Steinbrunner will teach English overseas

WOOSTER, Ohio - College of Wooster seniors Irene Rhine, Cora Hofstetter, and Clint Steinbrunner have been chosen to receive study grants from the scholarship board of the Fulbright Program, the nation's leading international educational exchange for students. The three Fulbright Scholars were selected on the basis of their academic achievement as well as their cross-cultural experiences and foreign language proficiencies. Each will spend the coming year teaching English in Germany.

"The Fulbright Commission's selection of these outstanding seniors is a testament to their impressive individual accomplishments and promise," said John Siewert, associate professor of art history and Fulbright Program adviser at Wooster. "I'm confident that Cora, Irene, and Clint will be highly effective cultural ambassadors and representatives of the College, and that the experiences of living and teaching in Germany will enrich their lives far beyond the exciting year ahead of them.

"Our students put a great deal of thought and effort into this extremely competitive application process," added Siewert, who noted that nine highly qualified seniors chose to apply to the Fulbright program this year.

Rhine, an international relations and German double major from Lyndhurst, Ohio, will serve as a teaching assistant for English at a middle school or high school. She also hopes to volunteer for an organization for immigrants or refugees and conduct some research on German-Turkish relations, which would build upon her Independent Study project, in which she examined Germany's perceptions of Turkey's possible accession to the European Union and the relationship between the Germans and the Turks. "I am very excited to have the opportunity to teach English in Germany and learn more about the German culture, language, and their interactions with other nationalities," said Rhine. "After my year as a Fulbright scholar, I may teach English through the Peace Corps and then continue my education."

Hofstetter, an English major with a minor in German from Upper St. Clair, Pa., will be teaching English and explaining aspects of American culture and history to middle- or high-school students. "I was very excited to be given the opportunity to teach English in Germany, as I have been interested in becoming a foreign language or ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher for a long time but haven't had much formal experience with education," she said. "I hope this experience teaching in Germany will help me decide whether or not I want to pursue a master's degree in education. I'm also looking forward to the chance to live in Germany since I have been studying the language for the past four years."

Steinbrunner, a music education major from St. Henry, Ohio, will also be teaching English somewhere in Germany next year. "I could not be happier to receive this award," he said. "I have wanted this opportunity since I began taking German courses in high school and my teacher shared the experiences she gained on a Fulbright grant. I look forward to not only spending time in Germany and improving my language skills, but also the chance to gain experience as an international teacher that I can apply when I begin my teaching career in America."

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by former Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of more than 150 other countries worldwide.