Rachel Brodie ’19 Wins Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship

Rachel Brodie ’19 loves languages. During her time at Haverford, the Romance languages major studied French, Italian, and Brazilian Portugeuse and minored in Latin. She began learning Chinese when she moved to Beijing after graduation to work as an educational consultant—work she has continued from the U.S. since borders closed due to COVID. (She also uses her French in her second job in the Books Department of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York.) Next year, however, she will have a chance to improve her Mandarin when she moves to Taiwan as the recipient of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award.

“I wanted to gain more experience in classroom teaching and to continue studying Chinese,” said Brodie of her decision to apply to Taiwan's ETA program. “... The structure and strong reputation of the program also drew me to it—Taiwan offers a lot of Fulbright positions and graduate school partnerships, and I wanted to be a part of this robust community, especially after being displaced from my community in Beijing.”

In China, she worked with high schoolers who were planning to attend English-speaking universities abroad. When she moves to Taiwan later this summer, she will work with younger students—either elementary or middle school—in Hualien, a city on the Pacific Ocean, providing English language instruction and promoting cross-cultural exchange.

At Haverford, Brodie sang in the Bi-Co Chamber Singers, the a cappella group the Mainliners, and had an off-campus job as a staff singer at Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr. Music continues to be an important part of her life, and she is eager to explore all that Hualien has to offer.

“I’m hoping to engage with the local music scene as much as I can, so I’d love to go to the Taroko Music Festival and the cafes and restaurants in the area that feature live music,” she said. “Another Fulbrighter shared an interactive map of all the cafes they had visited in the country, with reviews of each, so I hope to check out the one in Hualien and any others that have strong musical ties. And possibly try pizza with boba.”

Following her year in Taiwan, Brodie hopes to pursue graduate studies, either in education or language studies. As for the year ahead, she is looking forward to learning as much as she teaches.

“I continue to be enthralled by the possibilities in international education,” she said, “and the Fulbright ETA position allows me to approach the field in a different way and gain new experiences.”

Read more about Fords who have won fellowships, scholarships, or grants.