BUFFALO, NY - Caitlin E. Orgek ’18 is headed to the German state of Hesse this fall, where she will spend the next 10 months representing Canisius as a recipient of a J. William Fulbright Scholarship. Orgek is a rare quadruple major, and earned degrees this May in international relations, German, history and European studies.
Few academic honors worldwide are more prestigious than being named a Fulbright scholar. Orgek will use her merit-based grant to teach English as a second language at a school with a high enrollment of students with foreign and migration backgrounds. She also plans to participate in an ambassadorial project at a local refugee resettlement agency.
“Recently, Germany has become a destination for thousands of refugees and migrants in Europe,” Orgek explains. “With my Fulbright, I plan to learn about how Germany is handling the refugee and migrant situation beyond language education. This first-hand knowledge could then be utilized in the United States to improve not only individual living standards but communities as a whole.”
Orgek leaves for Germany well prepared for her work ahead.
She spent spring semester of her junior year studying at the Technische Universität in Dortmund, where she says she “gained a unique perspective into both German culture and living in an unfamiliar, new environment.” Orgek helped manage translation and interpretation services for more than 100 languages during an eight-month internship at the International Institute of Buffalo. She also volunteers for WEDI ENERGY, an afterschool reading program for refugee children.
Upon her return from Germany, Orgek plans to pursue a master’s degree in education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certification.
*The J. William Fulbright Scholarship is named for Senator J. William Fulbright and is the U.S. Government’s premier scholarship program. It is designed to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges, which provide recipients with tuition, fees, travel and research funds.
