Burgettstown woman named Fulbright Scholar
The Fulbright Scholar Award is regarded as one of the most prestigious in the country, and Kayla Grey of Burgettstown could not be more excited to be one of this year’s recipients.
The grant, which aims to increase relations between the United States and other countries by funding trips for recent college graduates, will cover Grey’s airfare and supply a monthly stipend for her nine-month trip to Spain.
“I’m kind of just taking a leap of faith and hoping for the best,” Grey said. “I’m always so nervous to step out of my comfort zone, but once I do it, I’m fine.”
Grey, who graduated in May, is one of just eight Washington & Jefferson College students who have received the Fulbright award. W&J was designated this year as a top producer of Fulbright scholars by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
For Grey, who had not even left Washington County to attend college at W&J, spending nine months in a foreign country will be completely different.
This is not the first time she has left the country, though. To fulfill part of her elementary education degree requirements, Grey went to Monteverde, Costa Rica, for three weeks in January 2015.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Grey said. “I had been in a bunch of other schools, and I thought it was going to be similar, and it wasn’t at all.”
There she taught English and math classes at the Cloud Forest School that bordered the rainforest. When she returned and took a student teaching job at Washington Park Elementary School, she realized the impact the experience had on her and how fascinated her students were to learn of it.
“It was just the coolest thing to see kids interested in something other than the culture they live in, the different holidays, and how they do a day at school as opposed to how we do a day of school. That’s always something I like doing,” Grey said.
Now Grey is off to the La Rioja region in Spain, where she will teach kindergarten and elementary students who are learning English as a second language in various subjects. Her flight leaves Aug. 31. She chose to teach in the countryside as opposed to city options because of the similarity the region shares with her home in Burgettstown.
Grey is responsible for finding her own apartment, opening a bank account and all other tasks that come with living abroad. These tasks, she hopes, will allow her to be fully immersed in the culture and lead to experiences she can share with her own students when she returns stateside.
“I think being over in Spain and teaching in a classroom over there and just living in that culture, I can bring back that culture to my students over here when I teach,” Grey said.