Grace Meharg Selected as Fulbright Award Winner

Recent Taylor University graduate Grace Meharg has received the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program (ETA) Award. Meharg, who graduated with academic honors on May 21, earned a degree in Elementary Education. Her selection came as the culmination of a year-long process, and she will spend most of the 2023 year in South Korea teaching English to elementary school students.

Meharg, from Rutherford, New Jersey, said she was influenced to enter the competition after overseas study and service experiences to China and Lebanon. She said she originally was drawn to Taylor because of the quality of its education program and also the sense of warmth she experienced during her campus visit.

“A really big way my faith shapes me, in the educational realm specifically, is seeing every student having created worth, being created in the Image of God, and being able to carry that with me as I go to an international setting—even if I’m not explicitly expressing my faith,” she said.

“It is also exciting to see how God is viewed and seen and worshiped in a different cultural setting, which I am very excited about. Throughout this whole process there has been a lot of learning how to trust and relate, because it’s been a year-long process. It was a lengthy application and a lot of waiting with nothing else to do. It’s been a lot of learning to wait and to trust God and know that He is in control and that I am not, which is always something I’m learning and relearning.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the US government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the US Congress to the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The Program operates in over 160 countries worldwide.