Two seniors graduating from Southwestern this month have been awarded Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships in Germany.

Chelsea Edge and Amy Tanguay will spend nine months teaching English to students in Germany.

“I hope the experience will enhance my understanding of German culture,” said Edge, who served as president of the German Club this year.

Edge is graduating with a major in English and a minor in German. After completing her teaching assistantship, she hopes to attend graduate school in library science.

Tanguay is graduating with a double major in English and German. After she returns from Germany, she will be enrolling in the Ph.D. program in Germanic Languages and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship program is one of several academic exchange programs administered by the U.S. Department of State. Prospective candidates are interviewed by faculty members on their campus, who then rank and recommend students to the Fulbright Commission. The commission reviews the applications and selects a number of candidates to recommend to partner countries, who then screen the applicants again and match the candidates with schools in different cities.

“Fulbright Teaching Assistantship awards are very competitive and very prestigious,” said Erika Berroth, associate professor of German at Southwestern.

Aaron Prevots, assistant professor of French at Southwestern, served as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in France in 1993-94.

“Involvement with Fulbright programs serves as a wonderful initiation into the idea of cultural ambassadorship,” Prevots said. “They emphasize understanding cultures in depth and inspire the same kind of curiosity about and respect for others that we are all working toward here at Southwestern. Serving as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant gave my career as a professor of language, literature and culture stronger focus through firsthand experience in specific places.”