Wheaton student and faculty member awarded Fulbrights

Laura Steele, a Wheaton College senior majoring in French and psychology, has been awarded a French Government Teaching Assistantship through the Fulbright program. Only 35 students are selected nationally for this award, which is administered by the U.S. Fulbright Program. Two Wheaton students Gregory Bates '00 and Skye Paine '00 won Fulbrights last year.

A resident of Kennebunkport, Maine, Steele will spend nine months teaching in France, most likely in a rural area. "Teaching in France will strengthen my ties to the language, the culture and the people," Steele said of the opportunity. Steele joins several of her college peers in receiving prestigious academic awards this year - in recent months, Wheaton students have been awarded both the Rhodes and British Marshall Scholarships.

Steele is no stranger to the French classroom, having served as a teaching assistant while studying in Paris, France, in 2000. She was also a recipient of Wheaton's Davis International Fellowship, providing funding for a summer of teaching English in Mexico in 1999. Upon her return to the U.S., Steele is considering a variety of options, including teaching and work as a mediator.

Steele's approach to teaching combines her appreciation of French language and culture with her background in psychology, and specifically, her interest in peace education and conflict resolution. "Initiating open conversations, reinforcing community involvement and encouraging respect; I am convinced that improved communication prevents escalated conflict," she wrote in her application to the Fulbright Program. "I want to incorporate my experience in peace education and mediation by teaching French students skills in effective communication."

In addition to her course work at Wheaton, Steele serves as a senior member of the residential hall staff, overseeing student residential advisers and organizing educational programming for dormitory residents. Her focus as a senior resident is to "apply the principles of behavioral psychology while utilizing positive reinforcement, therefore enhancing community development." Steele is also working with student life staff members to develop a mediation-training manual for the college.

Wheaton Professor of History Alexander Bloom has also been awarded a Fulbright to teach overseas. Bloom, regarded as an expert in American intellectual history and the pop culture of the 1960s, will teach American intellectual history at the University of Rome next spring.

The Fulbright Program was created in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Senator J. William Fulbright, sponsor of the legislation supporting the program, saw it as a step toward building an alternative to armed conflict. Today the Fulbright Program is the U.S. Government's premier scholarship program, enabling U.S. students, artists and other professionals to benefit from unique resources in every corner of the world. The Fulbright Program is funded by an annual congressional appropriation and contributions from other participating countries.

Wheaton College, located in Norton, Mass., is a selective college of the liberal arts and sciences with a student body of 1,500. It is a member of the Twelve College Exchange, which also includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams.