A Berry College education and Spanish student has received a Fulbright grant for the 2024-25 academic year.
Recipient Eliza “Ellie” Lizdas is a senior from Marietta, with a double major in secondary education and Spanish and minors in psychology and teaching English as a foreign language.
The Fulbright Program was established to promote international goodwill through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture and science. It is the largest U.S. exchange program and awards approximately 2,200 grants annually in all fields of study. Fulbright operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
Berry Associate Professor of Spanish Jennifer M. Corry noted, “Ellie is a dedicated, creative and enthusiastic student who will make a positive impact on her students in Spain as well as learn a lot from her experience abroad.”
A Young Life leader since 2021, Lizdas also served in the Berry Carper Mentoring Program. Currently she is student-teaching and working in an internship as a long-term substitute teacher at Model High School in a Spanish II class. While attending school, Lizdas worked in the Berry English as a Second Language (ESL) program, Admissions, Academic Transitions, and the Department of Teacher Education.
Her article “Using Self-Visualization and Goal-Setting Activities in an ESL Class to Increase WTC” will be published in the spring edition of Georgia Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Journal. Lizdas is a member of Kappa Delta Pi (International Honor Society in Education) and Sigma Delta Pi (Hispanic Honor Society).
Lizdas has previously traveled to Zambia and Guatemala for short-term mission trips. Although Fulbright has not yet notified her of the school where she will work during her grant year, she does know that her assignment will be in Galicia, Spain. Upon her return, Lizdas intends to become a high school English as a second language teacher.
She is the ninth Berry student to receive a Fulbright grant since 1991. Previous awards went to Robin Leblanc (Japan 1991), Samantha Hiner (Spain 2010), Phat Huynh (Vietnam 2011), Lauren Fenner (South Korea 2011), Zachary Wroblewski (Slovak Republic 2016), Taylor Blaylock (Taiwan 2021), Quinn Dankesreiter (Germany 2023), and Vanessa Rice (Switzerland 2023).
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