Sara B. Goldstein B.A. ’14/M.A. ’15 has received a 2015-2016 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to Taiwan.
Goldstein will participate in the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program, a program that places recent college graduates and young professionals as English teaching assistants in primary and secondary schools or universities overseas.
Goldstein will represent the U.S. as a cultural ambassador while she is overseas, helping to enhance mutual understanding between Americans and the people of Taiwan. Goldstein is not a stranger to traveling abroad; she spent her entire junior year of college abroad in Prague and Namibia. She took classes (including language classes), taught in local schools, and volunteered during her year abroad.
“Traveling and volunteering abroad has helped me develop cultural sensitivity and a heightened interest in understanding different education systems,” wrote Goldstein in her application. “I am curious to learn more about how current approaches to education contribute to Taiwan’s achievements, such as high test scores and large percentage of youth receiving higher education.”
Goldstein, who has been practicing yoga for six years, is currently learning about mindfulness and meditation. While in Taiwan, she will apply her knowledge of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga to help further develop her pedagogy.
Upon her return to the United States, Goldstein hopes to teach elementary school in an urban setting and plans to bring cross-cultural awareness to any school system that employs her.
“Sara’s receipt of the Fulbright ETA to Taiwan is a great example of how her academic background and co-curricular experience have aligned to bring her to precisely this point in her professional career. Her application clearly demonstrated a maturity and readiness to undertake such an experience as demonstrated by her extensive travel experience and work with students,” said Michelle Bata, associate dean and director of Clark’s LEEP Center.
“The Fulbright ETA program is an exceptional, highly competitive opportunity, and Sara’s award is a testimony to how intentional and purposeful engagement in academics and co-curriculars can lead to success in the pursuit of future opportunities. Indeed, this is what LEEP – Liberal Education and Effective Practice—Clark’s model of undergraduate education—is all about,” said Bata.
Goldstein received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology in May of 2014 and her master’s degree in urban elementary education from Clark last month after taking advantage of Clark’s Accelerated B.A./Master’s Program. As an undergraduate, she was active on the Hillel student board, she sang with the Clark Concert Choir and served as a campus Eco-Rep. Goldstein is a member of Psi Chi, the international honor society in psychology.
Goldstein is a resident of of Yardley, Pennsylvania, and a 2010 graduate of Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program of the United States. Goldstein joins over 100,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program alumni who have undertaken grants since the program began in 1948.
Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark’s pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark’s faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to complex challenges in the natural sciences, psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University’s motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.