A Fulbright Scholarship will send senior Grant Nordby to Taiwan for the next two years.
Why Taiwan?
“This is my favorite question that comes up,” said the senior global studies and English major from Stanton, Neb. “I honestly don’t know. I think it’s just a testament of NWU, the liberal arts education, and what can happen if you’re open-minded.”
Nordby will pursue a master’s degree in international relations at National Chengchi University in Taipei.
The Fulbright Scholarship is the flagship international education program sponsored by the United States government. Fifty-two NWU students have won the prestigious honor with 34 of the awards earned in the past decade.
Nordby vividly recalls arriving at NWU in 2011 and deciding to fulfill his foreign language requirement by studying Mandarin. He added a class on international relations. Class discussions on China and Taiwan piqued his interest and a couple years later to arrived in China for a year-long study abroad experience.
“While you’re studying abroad people look at you differently and you learn to look at people differently,” he said. “It wasn’t until I got back that I realized how many of my experiences revolved around working with people and development.”
His experiences in China included seeing the Great Wall, traveling to Tibet, volunteering at an NGO focused on green sustainable development and being selected as an ambassador for the first U.S.-China Student Summit in Beijing last summer.
“Perhaps the greatest gift that study abroad gave me was that it helped me realize my passions,” said Nordby, who is also a member of the track team.
Nordby hopes to focus his master’s degree program on rural and sustainable development.
He will graduate from Nebraska Wesleyan on May 16.