Tyler McKinney '17 to be an English Teaching Assistant in the Netherlands

For the fourth time, the prestigious Fulbright Program recognizes St. Francis College with a scholarship, honoring Tyler McKinney '17 with a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award to work in the Netherlands.

"There's a saying that goes, 'If your dreams don't scare you, then they're not big enough!' That's exactly what it was like applying for this Fulbright," said McKinney who completed a double major in Communication Arts and Adolescent Education, both with a concentration in English. "I don't always know how far I can go or how great I can truly be, but my heart is full because I am blessed with the opportunity to take my passion for education, language and travel and turn my dream into a reality."

McKinney will begin working in August at a vocational school with a focus on hospitality. She will also have the opportunity to train teachers how to implement educational theories and pedagogy in their classrooms and curriculum.

McKinney is the second student and fourth person at St. Francis to be recognized by the Fulbright Program.

Alissar Maaliki '04, a pre-med Biology Major won a U.S. Student Fulbright award to work with a research scientist in Morocco. She helped create a database of medicinal plants and their properties and visited village traditional herbalists.

Professor Virginia Franklin (English) won a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar award to teach and conduct research at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. Among other things, this led to a study abroad agreement that allowed Kelly Michalak '18 (Biology, minor in Psychology) and Aisha Yazdani (Biology) to study at Waikato.

"The Fulbright Program's mission is needed now more than ever: to promote mutual understanding between people from the United States and other countries, and thus create positive global social ripple effects," said Professor Franklin.

The fourth scholar was South African Vaneshran Arumugam, who won a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence award to teach in the College's English Department. His work also overlapped with other academic departments and programs, as well as outside institutions and community organizations. The drama club he developed for severely disabled students and led weekly at The Hungerford School on Staten Island is still going strong.

Three others have Fulbright connections from before they joined St. Francis College.

Before he became the 19th President of St. Francis College, Miguel Martinez-Saenz was part of the Fulbright-Nehru International Administrators Program, selected to spend two week abroad to learn about higher education in India.

Dennis Anderson (Chair, Department of Management and Information Technology) was a Fulbright Senior Specialist and Visiting Professor in Belgium at the University of Mons-Hainaut.

Miriam Salholz (Accounting and Business Law) had two Fulbright grants; to teach U.S. law at the Universite de Paris while conducting research at Institut de Droit Comparé and an Intercountry Lecturing Award to teach in Greece for the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Law.

St. Francis College, founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, is located in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Since its founding, the College has pursued its Franciscan mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education to students from New York City's five boroughs and beyond.

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St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201
www.sfc.edu