The Fulbright Program has selected two graduating seniors and a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach to spend the next academic year abroad.
Matthew Huy, who graduated from CSULB in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in dance and a minor in English, will spend the next academic year in Florence, Italy.
Graduating Spanish majors Terri Freet and Chenin Simi were selected to be English teaching assistants in Colombia and Spain, respectively.
“I’m honored and very excited,” Freet said, who will go to Colombia in July for a 10-month teaching assistantship.
Fulbright is an international education organization sponsored by the U.S. government. Its student program provides grants to recent graduates and postgraduate candidates to study abroad based on their academic merit.
Simi chose to go to Spain because of her passion for Spanish literature. She will go to Madrid in September, where she hopes to gain a better understanding of the Spanish culture and complete a research project regarding religious coexistence.
“I feel blessed and excited to have been given such an amazing opportunity,” Simi said.
Huy will study at The Florence Dance Cultural Center next semester and will engage with the 2008 Florence Dance Festival.
He will work on a project titled “Contemporary Dance in Italy; Uncovering a Historically Artistic Culture,” and upon returning to the U.S. hopes to share what he learns with other American dancers.
Freet, who is from San Clemente, has never been to South America but she studied abroad in Madrid in the 2006-07 school year.
“It was an amazing experience and gave me the drive to try for the Fulbright grant,” Freet said.
Simi, from Lancaster, went to Spain on a brief trip in high school and also studied there for two months in summer 2006.
Simi said she will miss the friends she has made at CSULB, including those she made in the language programs.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my four years here,” Simi said. “I have been given incredible opportunities here that I do not believe I would have had at another university.”
