Luca Valle '06 Receives Fulbright Award to Indonesia
Posted on: July 14
Luca Valle (SGS '06, Occidental College '10) has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship to Indonesia to teach English as a foreign language. He is one of over 1,500 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2010-11 academic year through the Fulbright Program.
"Indonesia is an incredibly diverse nation," says Luca. "So many different cultures, languages, faiths, and traditions can be found in one convenient (but expansive) archipelago, and I think that wherever there is diversity, the opportunities to challenge the way you think increase tenfold."
He will be an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) and an unofficial cultural ambassador in a village on the island of Sulawesi. "I will be teaching them about American culture, correcting any misconceptions they might have about the American people, and giving them the chance to hang out with a "real" American for nine months... something very few of them will have had the opportunity to do. I've been told that most of the people in the village I'll be living in have never seen a white person before."
Luca is the first student to receive a Fulbright ETA position to this school in Indonesia. "I'll probably have a huge influence on how the program is run, which is very exciting!"
"I am looking forward to achieving proficiency in another language, gaining humility from living in a developing nation, and reflecting on things that didn't enter into my fast-paced undergraduate experience" he says. "I also want to push myself to go places I've never been before, think things I've never thought before, and make a small difference in the community where I am placed, whether through my teaching or my intercultural exchanges."
"I see this as an opportunity to give back to the system of education that has supported and nurtured me for the past 16 years."
Luca is in good company as a Fulbright scholar. Forty Fulbright alumni have been awarded Nobel Prizes, and 75 alumni have received Pulitzer Prizes over the years. The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas to help students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists study, teach, conduct research and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
