W&L’s Maddy Mayer ’24 Earns U.S. Teaching Assistantship to Austria Mayer will teach English in Austria before pursuing a master’s degree in international relations.
Washington and Lee University senior Madeleine (Maddy) Mayer ’24 has been awarded a U.S. Teaching Assistantship (USTA) to teach English in Austria. At W&L, Mayer is double majoring in German and cognitive behavioral science, and minoring in Middle Eastern and South Asian studies with an emphasis on Arabic. Mayer is a native of Dublin, Ohio, and graduated from Dublin Coffman High School.
The USTA Program is administered by Fulbright Austria on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Teaching assistants are placed in secondary schools throughout Austria to teach English language and linguistic skills, serve as informal cultural ambassadors, and promote mutual understanding between the United States and Austria.
“I am incredibly thankful to have been awarded this opportunity as it recognizes all the hard work and dedication that I and many W&L faculty members have put in,” said Mayer, who will be teaching in the town of Krems an der Donau. “I truly could not have earned this opportunity without the support of the entire German department.”
For Mayer, the USTA program is an opportunity to fortify cross-cultural connections, which are important to building her intended career path in international relations. She is also looking forward to continuing the international education she began as a student at W&L when she spent a semester in Germany at the University of Bayreuth and learned skills that “can only be taught by living outside the U.S.”
Roger Crockett, professor of German, recalls that Mayer received the W&L Department of German’s “Rising Star” award for future promise as a first-year student, and admires her commitment to learning the language. “A ‘rising’ star no longer, Maddy graduates with a position of prominence in the constellation of our recent German majors,” he said.
On campus, Mayer works for Global Discovery Laboratories, is a peer tutor for the Arabic and German departments, and is a member of the club volleyball team. Her professors describe her as a highly motivated and responsible student, and her dependability has made her stand out in the classroom.
“Maddy is a hardworking and proactive student and is not afraid to make mistakes, instead owning them and learning from them,” said Anthony Edwards, associate professor of Arabic. “Maddy will be a stellar cultural ambassador on behalf of the U.S. She is constantly striving to expand her sociolinguistic knowledge and works to sharpen her pedagogical skills. Her years of focused language study have linguistically, emotionally, and practically prepared her well to live and work abroad.”
With the USTA, Mayer will depart in September 2024 for her nine-month program. Upon completion of the program, Mayer plans to pursue a master’s degree in international relations or an adjacent field.
The Fulbright Program was established more than 75 years ago to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Fulbright is the world’s largest and most diverse international educational exchange program. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Washington and Lee University is proud to be included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2023-2024 Fulbright U.S. Students for the sixth consecutive year.
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