Elgin Academy grad gets Fulbright to teach English in Malaysia
“It was incredibly eye-opening,” said Kacy Rauschenberger of her experience teaching English to children in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during her freshman year at DePauw University in Indiana.
Now she has received a prestigious Fulbright grant to pay her travel and living expenses so she can teach English in rural parts of Malaysia.
From January through November, Rauschenberger, an Elgin Academy alumna and a 2011 Daily Herald Leadership Team award recipient for outstanding community service, will be participating in an English Teaching Assistantship as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
“The program only has teaching assistants in remote schools that are subpar,” said Rauschenberger, 22. “There are about 100 or so people in the Fulbright program in Malaysia itself that will be doing the same thing I will be doing. They are from all over the country. Most of them will be a recent (college) graduate like myself. The Fulbright program strives to bring U.S. ambassadors to help in an area of need.”
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program — established in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs — aims to increase mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchange and supports long-term leadership development. The program offers research, study and teaching opportunities in more than 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students.
In her Fulbright application, Rauschenberger said she hopes to use her experience “to better my understanding of the global community, using culture as a means of communication.”
Rauschenberger said she learned about the program through one of her teachers at Elgin Academy.
That's also where her interest in international education was sparked as Rauschenberger spent two spring breaks teaching English at a school in the Dominican Republic while on mission trips during her sophomore and junior years.
“Kacy is a lifer at Elgin Academy. ... She is a great example of what you can become with a lot of hard work,” said Shannon Howell, assistant head of school for institutional advancement at Elgin Academy. “She has always known that she was going to play a bigger role in serving others. Service is critical to all grade levels and is critical to our curriculum all the way through. It's a huge part of who we are as a school.”
During her high school years, Rauschenberger served as a youth camp counselor, church volunteer, PADS volunteer, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentor.
Service runs in the family. Rauschenberger is the daughter of Cindy and Keith Rauschenberger of Elgin — Keith has served as a Republican precinct committeeman — and the niece of Elgin city Councilwoman Carol Rauschenberger and former Republican state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger.
Her dedication to community service and empathy toward those in need were exceptional, said Seth Hanford, Elgin Academy's head of school.
“There is a lot of people for whom community service, in this day and age, the purpose has been lost,” Hanford said. “It has become more about the servant than about the service. She has always done what she has done with such clear vision as to how it helps other people. That's just such a rare thing in this society to have a kid who understands that so well.”
Hanford said in his 15 years at Elgin Academy there has not been another Fulbright recipient.
“This is a pretty remarkable young woman who was raised with these values,” he said. “I hope we played a role in helping her hone them. She certainly is fantastic on her own.”
At DePauw, Rauschenberger served as president and membership chairman of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, an admissions ambassador and a mentor for first-year students.
She learned French throughout high school and graduated with a bachelor of arts majoring in French and political science in May 2015 from DePauw. She also spent a summer studying in France and served as a student leader on a winter term course in India during her junior year.
After completing the Fulbright program, Rauschenberger will spend two years teaching in Chicago Public Schools for Teach For America. She plans to pursue graduate studies in international business so she can use her teaching experience in the corporate environment and human resources.
“I was interested in the (Fulbright) program because I would like to go into international business and cultural training,” she said. “I really would like to gain cultural fluency and gravitas ... and be able to bring that back to the U.S.”