NYU Shanghai Seniors Accepted to Fulbright Teaching Program

Two NYU Shanghai seniors have been awarded places in the coveted Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Declan Mazur ’23 and Samuel Boghossian ’23 will travel abroad for 11-month teaching assignments in South Korea and Taiwan, aiming to enhance mutual understanding between Americans and people around the world. A third graduate, Nina Ruffalo ’23, was named an alternate for the Fulbright ETA in Albania. 

The highly competitive Fulbright US Student Program, administered by the United States Department of State, was established to promote friendship and mutual understanding among nations through the exchange of students. The ETA Program provides Fulbright recipients with a living stipend and teaching opportunity. They serve as cultural ambassadors for the US while teaching English to students.

“As the US Department of State’s flagship cultural exchange program, Fulbright is a world-recognized opportunity for young Americans to undertake transformative research, study or teaching in over 140 countries abroad,” said Director of Global Awards and Scholarships Anna Kendrick. “Winning such a competitive award is a great honor, and I hope that the experience of applying, self-reflection, and determination will set all of our candidates on paths of wider purpose and impact."

Declan Mazur will be teaching English to middle school students in South Korea alongside a local teacher in a rural or regional city. “This experience will bring me another chance to demonstrate my swift, adaptability skills,” Mazur said. “I won't be informed on my placement until I arrive in Korea, and the work I perform can change on a day-to-day basis.” 

Mazur said his experience volunteering for Stepping Stones as a teacher for primary school-aged children in Shanghai inspired him to apply for the Fulbright program. He added he’s looking forward to learning to work with an older demographic. “I have more to learn from those kids working through a really difficult time in their lives,” he said. “Pressures from all sides are on during the years preceding college entrance examinations, so I want to engage with kids during this time and really connect with them.”

_{Declan with his primary school students serving as a volunteer English teacher in Fall 2019.}

Mazur said he thinks his own language learning experience will help him connect with students. “My language study has taught me the nuances of communication, understanding, and perception in this world,” he said. Language is the medium and gateway to understanding everything from culture to how emotions are communicated on the deepest level.”

Former Assistant Professor of Practice in Psychology at NYU Shanghai Friederike Funk, who taught Mazur “Introduction to Psychology” and “Psychology of Justice,” supported Mazur’s application for the Fulbright scholarship. “I got to know him as a resilient, hopeful, and not easily discouraged person, when he is pursuing a goal that he believes in,” she said. “When interacting with people, he is open, respectful, thoughtful, and attentive. I am delighted that he received the Fulbright scholarship and cannot wait to see the inspiring and encouraging impact he will have on the people he encounters.”

Samuel Boghossian, a Social Science major with a concentration in International Relations and a minor in Chinese, will head to Yunlin, Taiwan in the fall. Boghossian felt drawn to the ETA Program because it brings together his interests in teaching, Chinese, and international relations. “The Fulbright is the perfect intersection of these three life paths, and that is incredibly meaningful to me,” he said.

Boghossian gained teaching experience during his study away at NYU Tel Aviv in his junior year. As a teacher for Sudanese and Eritrean refugees, he was introduced to the Explicit Direct Instruction method, which quickly became his preferred teaching style. He has studied Chinese for about a decade, and received a Critical Language Scholarship to study the language in the summer after his second year. Boghossian said teaching and language learning have given him opportunities to meaningfully interact with other people. “The potential for human connection is what makes it worth it for me to wake up every day,” he said.

_{Samuel (center) alongside his students in The Schoolhouse, a Tel Aviv-based education center for refugees, in Fall 2021.}

While Boghossian looks forward to next step, he will miss the community he has found at NYU Shanghai. “There are some wonderful people who are so into ideas and thinking, and it makes me so excited to be with them,” he said. “That’s the part I’m devastated about, is leaving this community of extraordinary thinkers.”

Meet NYU Shanghai’s past Fulbright Scholars: Hannah Johnstone ’17 (Malaysia), Sabrina Ku ’19 (S Korea), Lizbeth Pantoja (Taiwan), Madison Pelletier ’20 (Netherlands), Vittoria Vittucci ’20 (S Korea), Billy Chan ’20 (Taiwan), and Kristen Glinton ’19 (Foreign Student Program). 

Learn more about scholarship opportunities from the NYU Shanghai’s Global Awards & Fellowships office.