“When I was in middle school, my friends and I would watch Taiwanese dramas — even though we had no knowledge of the language or the people, we still enjoyed watching the films,” says Olayemi Fadahunsi ’18, political science major from Maplewood, Minn.
From those films, Fadahunsi took a keen interest to Taiwan. She continued that interest when she earned an award in 2018 from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Taiwan. The award is sponsored by the Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program places recent college graduates as English Teaching Assistants in schools and universities overseas. The ETAs improve international students’ English abilities and knowledge of the U.S., while enhancing their own language skills and knowledge of the host country. ETAs may also pursue individual study/research plans in addition to their teaching responsibilities.
Fadahunsi said it is an honor to represent the United States overseas and then continue diplomatic work in her professional career following her Fulbright award.
“My hope is to be in the field of international relations or foreign service, and I think this is a great step toward fulfilling my goals,” Fadahunsi says.
Fadahunsi left July 30 for the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung to teach elementary and middle school students.