Ellen Schoder ’19 Receives Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award

Teaching others is Ellen Schoder’s passion. The Class of 2019 graduate worked as a peer tutor in the Writing Center at Haverford, and has spent the years since her graduation as a global writing and speaking fellow at NYU Shanghai, where tutoring undergraduates and leading writing workshops for non-native English speakers is a big part of the job. As the recipient of a 2021 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award the former history major will continue developing those skills—this time in Spain. 

“I applied for the Fulbright because I wanted to expand my teaching practice,” said Schoder. “I have really enjoyed tutoring students at NYU Shanghai, and want to try teaching English at the high school level. I’m interested in teaching high school English or history in the future, and I know the Fulbright will give me great classroom management experience.”

The one-year position in Spain will also send her back to the country where she studied abroad junior year, a formative experience that she loved. Back then she lived in Granada; next year she will be placed in a school in Galicia, a region in the country’s northwest. 

The English Teaching Assistant Programs place Fulbrighters in classrooms abroad to provide assistance to the local English teachers. ETAs help teach English language while serving as cultural ambassadors for the U.S. 

In addition to helping her students develop their English and improving her Spanish language skills, the former editor-in-chief of the Haverford Clerk is hoping to start a student newspaper at the school where she is placed as her community engagement project. 

“I’d like to help students write articles in English, and hopefully write my own articles in Spanish,” she said. 

Schoder says her journey to becoming an educator—one that will take her through China and Spain and, eventually, she hopes, graduate school—was born at Haverford. She credits encouragement and help from staff and faculty at the College with her success in applying for the Fulbright. 

“All of the support I received from Haverford, during and after my time there, really made my Fulbright application possible,” she said. “My interest in education began with a CPGC-funded internship my freshman year, and I felt motivated to study abroad in Spain due to the support I received from the Study Abroad Office. Even after graduation, I have received tremendous encouragement from my faculty mentors in the history department and Writing Center, as well as Jason in the CCPA, who gave me great feedback on every draft of my Fulbright application.”
 
 
Read more about Fords who have won fellowships, scholarships, or grants.