Stories

Maggie Menendez ’22 will be teaching English to university-level students in Colombia as well as conducting an additional research project. As a native Spanish speaker, she was especially interested in Colombia because of the incredible variety of art traditions that exist there, she said. "My calling is to make arts more accessible to immigrants in the United States,” she wrote in her application. “Because art is a form of expression that transcends verbal language, it has potential to foster genuine cross-cultural exchange.”

A Johnson Scholar and University Honors Student from Avon, Conn., Menendez said she is especially grateful that SCU offered her the opportunity to create her own major. “I got to hand-pick my curriculum, so every class I took after declaring that major felt personal and important,” she said. While at SCU, Menendez has also received a Hayes Fellowship, a Miller Center Fellowship, and she volunteers with the Activities Programming Board.

After her Fulbright year, Menendez will be attending NYU to earn her masters degree in art, education, and community practice. “I hope to create a social enterprise that supports working adult immigrant artists and young aspiring immigrant and children-of-immigrant artists,” said Menendez.

About the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide. For further information please visit https://us.fulbrightonline.org/.