Lipscomb's Jacoby wins Fulbright award to teach in Colombia

Four years ago as a freshman at Lipscomb, Katie Jacoby struck up a friendship with Emily Royse Green ('06), a senior English major at the time who would go on to earn a Fulbright student award to conduct research in Vienna, Austria.

 

The relationship had a big impact on Jacoby, because this year Jacoby is a senior, and she has also been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach English for a year in a college in Colombia.

 

The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, was established in 1946 and is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”

 

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) Program, an element of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, places U.S. students as English teaching assistants in schools or universities overseas, thus improving foreign students’ English language abilities and knowledge of the United States while enhancing their own language skills and knowledge of the host country.

 

Jacoby is certainly qualified to carry out that mission as she has been exposed to Latin cultures outside the United States for some years as she grew up. Jacoby’s mother grew up in Venezuela, and the Mason, Ohio, native has traveled to Latin America  several times.

 

She spent a month in the Dominican Republic working at an art cooperative teaching money-making craft skills to women in that country. She went on a Lipscomb mission trip to Honduras as a freshman, and in 2007 her family spent three weeks in Bogotá, Colombia. She has taken Spanish courses since middle school, she said.

 

Over the years Jacoby has volunteered as a tutor for Spanish-speaking immigrants, including her own personal project to help a Honduran Lipscomb student and employee in the facilities department improve his English. So she is excited about the opportunity to teach English in a more formal, professional environment, not only to expand understanding between American and Latin cultures, but also to help her know if full-time teaching is her calling in life.

 

“I want to become totally fluent in Spanish, and I want to take advantage of everything I can in Colombia,” said Jacoby. No American music, books or movies for her while she’s in South America, she said. “And I hope this experience of teaching will make it clear for me whether or not teaching ESL is something I'd like to pursue further.”

 

The editor-in-chief of the 2009 Exordium is considering teaching as a profession, but she also has her eye on a potential career in the foreign service, the same route that Royse is now pursuing and a good fit for a Fulbright student scholar.

 

“That interests me, becoming a bridge between two countries. Americans need to be learning more about countries they want relationships with,” she said.

 

Jacoby, an English major and Spanish minor, said she thinks many Americans think of other countries only in terms of how they relate to the United States, and, regarding Colombia, know only about its reputation for being a dangerous place. Her first visit to Colombia in 2007 opened her eyes, and she hopes that after her Fulbright experience she can bring Americans an understanding of the country on its own merits – a country with a rich history, culture and political affairs.

 

“In a lot of ways Katie is ideal to teach,” said Matt Hearn, chair of the English department. His department has produced Lipscomb’s last two Fulbright scholars. “She has a very active, curious, adventurous approach to the world. She is not afraid of challenge. She thrives on expanding her universe. It’s always thrilling to teach students like Katie, because we learn as much from them as they learn from us,” Hearn said.

 

Jacoby is a member of Lipscomb’s Alpha Chi Society for academic achievement and a former participant in Lipscomb’s honors program. She served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for a month in Philadelphia, working with inner-city children and at a youth camp. In Nashville, she has worked with Christian Community Services Inc., to help low-income families achieve financial independence.

 

She said that four programs at Lipscomb were the main ingredients for her academic success: the English department; the foreign language department; the study abroad program (she spent a semester in Vienna, Austria); and the honors program.
 

Jacoby said there are eight Fulbright winners headed to Colombia in the coming school year. This is the first year the Fulbright program has placed teaching assistantships in Colombia, she said.