Knox wins fourth Fulbright
McCabe headed to India with Fulbright
By Olivia Louko
May 9, 2012
On June 29, post-baccalaureate Nicole McCabe ‘11 will go to India for nine months as a Fulbright scholar. She will be teaching English to high school students and volunteering at an organization that promotes women’s literacy.
McCabe decided to apply for a Fulbright scholarship after attending an information session last year.
“I knew vaguely that it was about going abroad. … I wasn’t sure what it was, but I’ve always wanted to teach abroad, so I went,” McCabe said.
The hardest part of the application, McCabe said, is the essay portion. The Fulbright application consists of two essays: a personal statement and a statement of grant purpose.
“You have two pages to convince these people that they should invest in you,” McCabe said. “It’s an incredibly small amount of space to show them who you are, what you are passionate about and to convince them to [be] passionate about it with you.”
McCabe believed that her experiences both inside and outside of Knox will help her while she is teaching in India. She is a post-baccalaureate student in English now and works part-time as a substitute teacher for the special education program in the Knox County school district. She also tutored while in high school.
McCabe grew up near an Indian neighborhood in Chicago, which is where her interest in India comes from.
“The art is just incredibly gorgeous, and I think it has this really interesting mix of cultures,” McCabe said.
For her research project, which is required of all Fulbright scholars in India who are ETAs (English Teaching Assistants), McCabe plans on volunteering with an organization that promotes women’s literacy in India.
“I want to learn about the methods of this organization because I want to learn how that type of outreach works and how it could be applied to other communities,” McCabe said.
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