Riverhead ’10 grad adds Fulbright Scholar to her list of accomplishments

When she first opened the email, Kellie Griffith thought she was the victim of a federal April Fool’s joke.

“I just thought, ‘There’s no way. This has to be a mistake.'”

But it was no joke, even though the acceptance email had arrived on April 1, a full two months before she had been expecting to hear any word on her application. Griffith, a 2010 Riverhead High School graduate, has been admitted to the coveted Fulbright Scholarship Program.

“I was in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, which is an interesting place – there’s usually at least one person experiencing homelessness that’s yelling and walking around the terminal – and people must have thought I was that person that day,” Griffith said. “I was calling a million people, having the same exact conversation over and over, yelling and crying and laughing and sweating – people must have thought I was crazy!”

With an overall acceptance rate of roughly 19 percent, admittance into the Fulbright Scholarship program is no mean feat. Fulbright Scholars are awarded grants by the U.S. government to travel abroad and conduct research, teach English and build relationships internationally as cultural ambassadors for the United States. Fulbright alumni are Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, U.S. senators and heads of state. Only 800 grants are awarded annually, and for Griffith’s program in particular – the opportunity to teach English to university students in Ecuador – only four out of every 52 applicants, a mere seven percent, were awarded a grant last year.

But Griffith is anything but average.

After graduating eighth in her high school class of 2010, Griffith went on to double major in Spanish and elementary education at Wagner College on Staten Island. As an undergraduate, she helped organize a Habitat for Humanity trip to Ecuador in her freshman year, spent nine weeks in Costa Rica last year as a preschool teacher and has dedicated several years of time and energy to Staten Island neighborhood Port Richmond, an economically disadvantaged and primarily Hispanic neighborhood on the north shore. She was named Port Richmond scholar of education for her work there, where she has taught ESL lessons to Hispanic adults, organized street cleanups and fostered a thriving relationship between the local elementary school’s dual language program and students at Wagner.

“I’ve just been really lucky in that I’ve always known what I’m passionate about,” said Griffith in an interview Friday, “and that’s teaching.”

After her two months teaching in San Jose, Costa Rica, Griffith knew she had to continue teaching abroad. “I went to my academic advisor and said to him – I’ve got to go abroad as much as I can. I want to teach in as many countries as I can.”

He asked her if she’d ever heard of Fulbright.

“Obviously I’d heard of Fulbright,” Griffith said, laughing. “I was like – yeah, but there’s absolutely no way I could get into it. Let’s cross that off the list. Let’s think about other options.”

As it turned out, Fulbright has a program specifically geared toward graduating undergraduates who are interested in teaching in other countries. Griffith had already spent time in Ecuador her freshman year, so it seemed like an obvious choice.

“There was only one thing, [my advisor] said. The application’s due in a week and a half.”

So over the course of 10 days, while she was also shouldering the responsibility of a full-time student teaching position, Griffith worked into the night on her application, gathering references and drafting her proposal. Her application would eventually be approved by the twelve members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship board, who are personally appointed by the President of the United States.

“I’m overwhelmed,” said Griffith. “I’m questioning everything I do now. Little things, like – okay, Fulbrights definitely have matching socks, so I should do that. Fulbrights don’t have a pile of laundry, so I should do my laundry.”

Beginning this fall, Griffith will be in Ecuador for ten months teaching English to university students. The grant will fund her flight and living expenses in Ecuador. Griffith will be staying in her own apartment, though she hopes to get local roommates.

Fulbright Scholars are also involved in a secondary, more individualized project in their host country. Griffith hopes to use her secondary project to teach Ecuadorian children English by helping them connect with the language through music.

“Whether I’m in a small town in Ecuador or a big city like Madrid, there’s always American music,” said Griffith. “So I’d like to use that as a way to connect with the language.”

She says she feels comfortable going to Ecuador, where she has maintained relationships with people she met during her time there with Habitat for Humanity. “Ecuadorians are way nicer than Americans,” she said, “so they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh! You’re coming! My mom’s grandma’s uncle lived in this town and if you need anything he knows someone living across the street from the hospital that can help you!’ It’s so nice to know I’m going somewhere where I feel comfortable.”

A Fulbright Scholarship is a tremendous honor, and Griffith has been astonished and humbled by the outpouring of support from family and friends. “Wagner’s president pulled me into his office on Wednesday and gave me flowers,” she said. “Everyone is really proud. I feel so lucky and thankful.”

What’s the first thing she’ll do to prepare for life in Ecuador?

“Well,” she said, after some thought, “I should read the dictionary of English! I’m going to be teaching college students, right? I don’t want to be teaching them misspelled words.”