Two members of the Shippensburg University community have received Fulbright awards.
Dr. Margaret Lucia, professor of music and theatre arts, will spend the Spring 2017 semester at the Conservatorio Teresa Berganza in Madrid, Spain. Graduating senior Curtis Rabe of Orefield will spend 10 months in Germany as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA).
A total of 15 faculty members have received Fulbright awards since 1998, including six in the last six years. Several other students have also received Fulbright awards in recent years.
Lucia will collaborate with faculty, students and composers, as well as performing and sharing her own knowledge of contemporary American music while in Spain.
Lucia joined the faculty in 1996. In addition to teaching, she is also an active performer and music composer. She performs regularly and has performed several times at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall. She has appeared at festivals and given concert performances across the United States, Europe and in Japan. In addition to composing music, Lucia specializes in the performance of music by women composers.
According to Lucia, the award “presents so many wonderful opportunities – not just for me personally, but also in the larger sense that I will be a cultural ambassador from the U.S. to Spain. The Fulbright program is dedicated to promoting mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries; thus I have no doubt that enduring relationships, both personal and institutional, will grow from this experience.”
The grant, she said, also allows her to further her focus on the music of Spanish women composers.
Rabe will assist English teachers as well as teaching English language and American studies classes. Rabe, a member of the university’s Honors Program, graduates May 7 with a major in computer science and minors in German studies, music, and ethnic studies. He will leave for Germany this fall.
According to Rabe, he has spent most of his undergraduate career preparing for his goal of attaining a Fulbright award. “Applying for this position has been a goal of mine for at least three years. I added the German studies minor after I decided that I definitely wanted to apply, because having the minor and showing evidence of knowing the [German] language was a very important part of my application,” he said.
After completion of the ETA program, Rabe plans to use his experience to either pursue a career in information technology for an international business or to attend graduate school to further his formal study of the German language.
The Fulbright program, the U.S. State Department’s flagship international educational exchange program, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries.
Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic and/or professional achievement as well as the demonstration of leadership in their fields. The program currently operates in more than 160 countries.
