Jill Fredenburg, a senior art major from Memphis, TN, has been selected to receive a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for the 2017-2018 academic year. She will serve as an English Teaching Assistant in Estonia.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants for individually designed study/research projects or for English Teaching Assistant Programs, which place Fulbrighters in classrooms abroad. The grant will also support Fredenburg’s project exploring the effects of Estonia’s free internet on its high literacy rates.
During the 2016-2017 academic year at Rhodes, Fredenburg served as an art department assistant, diversity fellow, and First-Year Experience student-teacher. She is a service scholar through the Bonner Program and also enjoys writing poetry, photography, and filmmaking. She traveled to Melbourne, Australia, during the summer of 2015 to work as the digital storytelling intern for STREAT Ltd, a social enterprise providing disadvantaged youth a supported pathway to careers in the hospitality industry. In Memphis, Fredenburg founded an arts program geared towards creative development for underserved elementary students. She also has worked with the Refugee Empowerment Program, the Tennessee Special Olympics, and with Rhodes’ Deaf Literacy Program.
“I hope to gain a more internationally oriented perspective of literacy and internet usage while I am in Estonia,” says Fredenburg. “While living abroad, I plan to compare the assumptions and realities of web-savvy, ‘Westernizing’ nations. I plan to assess whether or not aspects of Estonia’s view that internet usage is a human right could benefit a city like Memphis. After completing the program, I hope to pursue a career in the public service or nonprofit realm, while also continuing my interdisciplinary arts practice.”
Fredenburg is a 2013 graduate of White Station High School.
Rhodes recently was recognized by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as a top producing institution for Fulbright U.S. Students for 2016-2017.
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