Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Emory U. senior wins Fulbright teaching assistantship
By Samyukta Mullangi
Emory Wheel (Emory U.)
04/18/2008

(U-WIRE) ATLANTA — Emory University senior Paige Wilson will have to defer her admission to Yale Law School for one year. Instead, she will be spending next year in Taiwan teaching English to primary school children under the auspices of the Fulbright Scholarship.

A native of Boston, Wilson became interested in Eastern religions in high school and pursued that interest at Emory by taking classes on Buddhism and Tibet. She then declared a religion major, but soon narrowed her focus and decided on an Asian and Asian American studies major.

She was spending this semester studying literary and colloquial Tibetan language as part of an independent study in Tibet, and in her spare time, teaching English to a group of young women. However, her stay was cut short by regional unrest and she had to return on March 23.

She said she was "pleasantly surprised" to win the Fulbright.

"No one can ever be sure," she said, but added that this opportunity fell right in place with what she wanted to do. "I'm interested in international human rights law and Asian law, and this is a stepping stone to what I eventually want to be doing."

Dee McGraw, director of the National Scholarships and Fellowships Program at the Office for Undergraduate Education, described Wilson as "centered."

"Paige is the sort of student I want in my classes and the sort of human being I value as a friend," McGraw wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel. "She strikes me as quiet within herself, and yet happily outward to the world."

The Fulbright is significant for its ambassadorial component, McGraw wrote.

"Recipients are chosen not only because of the academic accomplishments ... but also because they are people who, we believe, will immerse themselves in the culture of their host countries and best represent the U.S. as citizen ambassadors," McGraw wrote.

During her time at Emory, Wilson has taken advantage of almost every opportunity to interact with the Tibetan culture and nation. She was president of Students for a Free Tibet for three years and had the opportunity of personally meeting with the Dalai Lama on his visit to Emory.

Last fall, she interned with Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta, Ga. — the Emory-affiliated Tibetan Buddhist center. She has also been to Tibet twice.

Wilson won the Stefanie Canright scholarship through the Center for International Programs Abroad and was able to volunteer at a Tibetan orphanage last summer. She desisted from taking on the challenge of writing an honors thesis to be able to return to Tibet in the spring.

Wilson has also participated in the Emory Tibetan studies program in Dharamsala, India, and she spent the summer after her freshman year in England and Scotland.

Wilson said that her "various study abroad opportunities have allowed [her] to pursue [her] academic interests and solidified [her] commitment to international studies."

"CIPA is my best friend," she said.

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