Emily Paige Borelli, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, applied for a Fulbright Scholarship partly because she wanted to return to China, partly because her mother was urging her to make post-graduation plans and partly because, she said, “You never know.”

In mid-March, Borelli learned that she will return to China, all-expenses paid, as one of this year’s winners of a prestigious Fulbright teaching assistantship.

“I am really excited because it’s the thing I wanted to do above any other [post-graduation option],” Borelli said. “I didn’t think I was going to get it.”

The Fulbright Program, established by the U.S. Congress, awards about 6,000 grants annually around the world, for teaching assistantships and for study and research abroad.

The race for a Fulbright award is “very competitive,” said Jean-Robert Leguey-Feilleux, Ph.D., professor of political science and Saint Louis University’s Fulbright Program liaison. “[Borelli] is the only winner on this campus this year.”

To win the award, Borelli said she had to submit an application, a statement regarding her purpose for receiving the grant and three letters of recommendation, as well as attend an interview. Leguey-Feilleux aided Borelli in gathering the materials required for her application.

She proposed “a beautiful project that was well-organized,” Leguey-Feilleux said. “She did a lot to polish it, and so her efforts are well-rewarded.”

Borelli said that she has wanted to return to China ever since she got back from a semester of study in Beijing last spring.

“SLU got me thinking in international terms and inspired me to go abroad,” she said.

The Fulbright grant will pay for a round-trip flight to Macau, China, housing, a stipend for teaching and some insurance, Borelli said.

A Sociology major at SLU, Borelli said that she will be teaching English to Chinese students in Macau, as part of the English Teaching Assistantship program funded by the Fulbright Program. Since teaching assistants “only teach 20 hours a week,” Borelli said, she will also propose a supplementary project to complete while abroad.

Borelli, who wants to eventually pursue a doctorate in Sociology, decided that she wanted to research “the Chinese family . I wanted to conduct interviews of students about family life.”

She said she could use the data she gathers in China when she returns to the United States to attend graduate school.

According to us.fulbrightonline.org, the Fulbright Program was initiated in 1946 as part of a bill presented to Congress by Sen. J. William Fulbright. The bill called for the use of surplus war property to fund scholarly programs abroad and was to promote “good will” in a post-wartime world.

Scholarship winners come from a wide range of disciplines, including science, journalism and fine and performing arts.

A 12-member panel makes up the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which oversees the candidate-application review process and has the final say on who receives awards.