J. William Fulbright Fellowships
Rachel Kelly '08 Receives Fulbright Fellowship
By Betty Gabrielli
April 24, 2008
Rachel Kelly '08
Photo by Rachel Cotterman '10
The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has chosen senior
Rachel Kelly as a Fulbright Fellow. A double-degree student with majors
in violin performance and German, Kelly will teach English in Germany
for a year beginning this fall. Among the factors leading to her
selection was her interest in teaching English and violin in German
schools with large populations of immigrant children.
"We in Oberlin's German Department are very proud of Rachel," says
Elizabeth Hamilton, chair and associate professor of German language
and literature. "She is an accomplished student and teacher of German
as well as a talented violinist. Rachel is uniquely well prepared to
teach in a school that emphasizes music and the arts to promote
understanding between children of varying cultural backgrounds."
Kelly's Oberlin activities and achievements include performing with the
Oberlin Orchestra under the baton of the distinguished guest conductor
Sir Simon Rattle in 2004 and touring China in January 2006 as a member
of the Oberlin Orchestra. She spent her junior year at the Freie
Universität Berlin under the aegis of Columbia University's Berlin
Consortium for German Studies.
Looking forward to her year in Germany, Kelly says dealing with a
different set of cultural frictions will be challenging. But she
believes that many problems facing minority groups in Germany compare
to those in other western nations. "Working on how to resolve these
problems through something I love—music—will be incredibly satisfying,"
she says.
Hamilton is confident that Kelly is up to the challenge. "Rachel has
long been an excellent student of German language and literature and
has engaged in an in-depth exploration of literature by writers whose
native language is not German. The Fulbright award, by enabling her to
draw from her talents as a musician and her strong background in
canonical literature, will help her build enduring bridges between
people."
