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PITTSBURG —
Never count your chickens until you get that last email from the Fulbright folks. That’s the lesson that Robyn Hilt, Pittsburg State University senior, has learned.
“Last fall, I decided to apply for a Fulbright English Language Teaching Assistantship to South Korea and I was put on a wait list,” she said. “I had pretty well resigned myself that I wasn’t going, then Monday I got an email saying ‘Call us immediately.’ I did, but the call was from New York and they were on their lunch break.”
When she did contact the Fulbright people, she got some very good news.
“South Korea is the oldest program Fulbright runs, and it takes more teaching assistants than the others,” Hilt said. “The U.S. government gave them a little more money so they could add more people, and I was one of them.”
She will leave July 2 and go to New York City for orientation.
“Then all 80 of us will fly to Korea for two months of intensive language study, then we’ll be shipped to schools all over South Korea,” Hilt said. “I don’t know yet where in Korea I’ll be going.”
She does know that she will stay with a Korean family rather than live on her own.
“I prefer that, coming from a family of seven children, and it will put my mother’s mind to rest,” she said.
Hilt, who will complete her degree in secondary English education this summer, already has some experience in working with Korean students at the PSU Writing Center.
“I tutored a Korean student and was a conversational partner with another Korean student,” she said.
Her experiences with these students were part of the reason why she chose to apply for a teaching assistantship in South Korea.
Her father, the late Robert S. Hilt, was dean of the PSU Honors College, and Hilt has been around international students all her life.
“I really enjoy working with English Learners,” she said. “I’m really thinking about pursuing English as a Second Language in the future.”
She said she had first considered joining the Peace Corps, then attended an informational session on the Fulbright Program.
“I figured that it might be a better fit for me,” Hilt said.
Another reason she selected South Korea was the nation’s strong involvement with the National Forensics League.
“Forensics has been my life the last eight years and I can’t imagine my life without it,” said Hilt, who is currently assistant debate and forensics coach at St. Mary’s Colgan High School.
Never count your chickens until you get that last email from the Fulbright folks. That’s the lesson that Robyn Hilt, Pittsburg State University senior, has learned.
“Last fall, I decided to apply for a Fulbright English Language Teaching Assistantship to South Korea and I was put on a wait list,” she said. “I had pretty well resigned myself that I wasn’t going, then Monday I got an email saying ‘Call us immediately.’ I did, but the call was from New York and they were on their lunch break.”
When she did contact the Fulbright people, she got some very good news.
“South Korea is the oldest program Fulbright runs, and it takes more teaching assistants than the others,” Hilt said. “The U.S. government gave them a little more money so they could add more people, and I was one of them.”
She will leave July 2 and go to New York City for orientation.
“Then all 80 of us will fly to Korea for two months of intensive language study, then we’ll be shipped to schools all over South Korea,” Hilt said. “I don’t know yet where in Korea I’ll be going.”
She does know that she will stay with a Korean family rather than live on her own.
“I prefer that, coming from a family of seven children, and it will put my mother’s mind to rest,” she said.
Hilt, who will complete her degree in secondary English education this summer, already has some experience in working with Korean students at the PSU Writing Center.
“I tutored a Korean student and was a conversational partner with another Korean student,” she said.
Her experiences with these students were part of the reason why she chose to apply for a teaching assistantship in South Korea.
Her father, the late Robert S. Hilt, was dean of the PSU Honors College, and Hilt has been around international students all her life.
“I really enjoy working with English Learners,” she said. “I’m really thinking about pursuing English as a Second Language in the future.”
She said she had first considered joining the Peace Corps, then attended an informational session on the Fulbright Program.
“I figured that it might be a better fit for me,” Hilt said.
Another reason she selected South Korea was the nation’s strong involvement with the National Forensics League.
“Forensics has been my life the last eight years and I can’t imagine my life without it,” said Hilt, who is currently assistant debate and forensics coach at St. Mary’s Colgan High School.
She said there is an NFL branch in South Korea, the Pacific Island Branch, and the nation has been spearheading an effort to join with the International Debate Association.
“They start debate with very young kids there,” Hilt said. “I could be working with pre-kindergarten students to those exiting high school.”
She’s also Frontenac High School newspaper advisor and has been student teaching seventh and ninth grade students.
“My students are all very excited about me going,” Hilt said. “They’re my inspiration.”
Hilt, along with several of her siblings, has been involved in local theater for many years. She has served as a costumer and director for Pittsburg Community Theatre and also done costumes for SMC and Pittsburg Family YMCA shows.
She will be in South Korea for a year and two months, and is scheduled to return in August of 2013. While Hilt is gone, she plans to write for the “Fulbright Journal” and “Rostrum,” a monthly magazine published by the National Forensics League, as well as keep up a blog.
“I’ve never been out of the United States before, and this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Hilt said. “I’ll be a world away. It’s scary, but this will probably be the best adventure of my life.”
