UCF Student Selected For Fulbright Award to Taiwan

Congratulations are in order to Christopher Szczerba for being selected for the Fulbright Student Award to Taiwan!

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to experience international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 1,900 grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.

Christopher will be living in Taiwan as an English Teaching Assistant where he will work at an elementary or middle school.  He looks forward to being an ETA because it will give him the chance to engage the students in extracurricular activities he enjoys  such as baseball, rock climbing and a cappella music. He hopes to make friendships with his coworkers and other locals that he will encounter during his stay. Christopher states, ”The Fulbright is truly an honor, and I am excited to work in public diplomacy again, just as I did as a CBYX participant, when I lived in Germany from 2009 to 2010.  I will be in Taiwan until July 2015.”

Christopher Szczerba has recently completed his thesis in human trafficking where he focused on how human development may affect a state’s ability to meet minimum standards of protection.  Using the DOS’s Trafficking in Persons report for 2013, along with the most recent Human Development Index, Christopher found that states which are grouped in similar developmental categories by the U.N. experience similar problems in compliance with minimum guidelines.

Good luck Christopher and we wish you the best!