Ms. Pamela J. Pearson, a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State University and Drake School of Education alumna, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship to Rwanda in linguistics. Pearson is one of four GSU students and one over 1,600 citizens who will travel abroad for the 2011-2012 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.She is traveling to Rwanda to study the recent language-of-instruction change from French to English, and how it is being appropriated in schools and by teachers in their day-to-day practice. The scholarship is allowing Pearson to pursue impactful research that can be used by policymakers abroad, she said.
“This project wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the Fulbright support because I need to be in-country for the research,” Pearson said. “I am now able to perform a project in a way that I wish to, and for that, I’m very grateful. I’m incredibly lucky and I am able to go into the experience with a lot of hope.”
Pearson is a 2007 graduate from the School of Education’s Master of Arts in Teaching program with concentrations in French, Spanish and English as a Second Language.