Senior Laura Tschop named a Fulbright Scholar to South Korea

Senior Laura Tschop plans to spend next year looking for answers to helping immigrant schoolchildren in the U.S. learn English and perform well on standardized tests in South Korean classrooms.

The Pennsylvania native was recently named a 2007 Fulbright Fellow, one of five Wheaton students to receive the honor so far this year. Tschop will spend the next year teaching English to South Korean schoolchildren and studying the country's public school system.

''I've had a lot of experience teaching English as a second language in the U.S.,'' said Tschop, who has worked with Hispanic students in the U.S. and the Caribbean. ''I'm looking forward to having the chance to try it in a new culture.''

Immersion in South Korean society will also provide new insights into effective teaching, says Tschop, who plans on pursuing a master's degree in education after returning to the states. ''The Asian population is growing in the U.S. My year in South Korea will broaden my perspective, help me to identify with students and be more effective as an educator.''

A major in psychology and a minor in early childhood education, Tschop has taught English as a second language to elementary schoolchildren in Gettysburg, Penn., and to children in two small towns in the Dominican Republic. She also has taught children in the Norton and Attleboro Head Start programs and at a private school for students with special needs in Providence, R.I. She currently is completing a year of student teaching in the Norton schools.

Tschop has been active on and off the Wheaton campus in a variety of community service and campus activities. President of the Community Service Council, she was one of the coordinators for a group of 32 students who traveled to New Orleans to participate in rebuilding during the winter break. She has been active in Voices United to Jam, a gospel and R&B vocal group; the college's Christian Fellowship; coordinated volunteers for the college's Relay for Life event and served fellow students as a peer mentor for academics and global programs. Her commitment to helping others was recognized in 2005 when she was awarded the college's Richard and Virginia Thornburgh Leadership Award for Public and Community Service.

The Fulbright-funded stay in South Korea will not be Tschop's first international experience. She spent a semester of her junior year abroad at the University of Wollongong in Australia, through Wheaton's Center for Global Education. In addition, Tschop used the $4,000 stipend from her Wheaton Trustee scholarship to spend the summer of her sophomore year in the Dominican Republic to help run an English immersion summer camp and a sports camp with the organization Orphanage Outreach. While there she also taught English language classes to both adults and students.

Tschop credits her mother who is a teacher with inspiring her to pursue studies in education, and she lauded the encouragement she has received from her professors at Wheaton. ''I'm so thankful that I've had the experiences I've had at Wheaton,'' she says, noting the advantage of a broad liberal arts education. ''I appreciate the way the college approaches teaching, getting students in the field and opening our eyes to the real world issues that children struggle with.''

The Fulbright program, named in honor of U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, was established by the U.S. Congress in 1946 and it aims to increase mutual understanding between citizens of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. The program is funded by Congress and managed by the Institute for International Education.

Wheaton was named as one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges in producing Fulbright Scholars in 2006.