Senior Evan Gage will travel to Turkey at the end of summer. There, he will teach English language and literature, as well as United States culture.
The 10-month-long exchange program will be funded by the J. William Fulbright Student Award — one of the most prestigious awards an undergraduate can receive.
“I think about the men and the women who have taught me at Hillsdale and the type of people they are,” Gage said. “I hope that I can emulate that and create a little sense — a small spirit — of that at whatever odd Turkish university I find myself at.”
Gage, a double major in English and History with a religion minor, is a member of the Honors Program. He heard back from Fulbright on Monday, within a half hour of turning in his senior thesis on Julian of Norwich’s “Revelations of Divine Love.”
The Honors Program’s trip to Turkey last summer cultivated his interest in the country.
While there, he connected with managers of a Turkish conservative political magazine. Depending on where Fulbright places him, he may assist scholars with translating the writings of Russell Kirk and Edmund Burke into Turkish in addition to his teaching.
Gage said his reason for choosing Turkey, of all places, is two-pronged: he loves the Turkish people and he sees cultural similarities and differences between Americans and the Turks that he wants to explore and better understand.
He is interested particularly in exploring Turkey’s brand of civic religion and in comparing it to the United States.
“Seeing a different culture do the things your culture does in order to propagate a certain identity is fascinating,” Gage said. “It makes you really stop and consider your own cultural identity.”
But his interest in Fulbright? That began with Annie Dillard.
During last summer’s trip to Turkey, Gage got lost in the city of Antayla. He wandered into a bookstore. The store’s owner, a Turkish man named Kamal, tried German, French, and Turkish before settling on English, and the two began talking.
Eventually, Kamal asked Gage what authors he liked. Gage replied, “Annie Dillard.”
“Kamal said, ‘Ah,’ and we had this moment,” Gage told the Collegian. “Then he said, ‘You must meet my American friends.’”
One of these friends was a Fulbright scholar, and that night, during a party at Kamal’s house, Kamal gave a toast that Gage might return to Turkey. The rest of the group joined in and encouraged Gage to do an ETA, or English Teaching Assistant. Which he is now doing through Fulbright.
“I’d say this is probably one of the highest academic achievements that an undergraduate student can be awarded,” said Assistant Professor of German Fred Yaniga. “The Fulbright name alone is something which will escort these students throughout their professional careers — their academic careers especially.”
Yaniga is Hillsdale’s campus Fulbright adviser. He assists students applying for Fulbright and organizes on-campus interviews. Gage was one of six Hillsdale students to apply for Fulbright this year. They appeared before Yaniga, Assistant Professor of English Patricia Bart, and Professor of Philosophy Jim Stephens, who all constituted this year’s Fulbright campus committee.
They forwarded the interview’s results to Fulbright’s New York office. In January, Gage was informed he made it through the first round of cuts. Fulbright annually gives out 1,900 grants to students and young professionals for exchange programs in 140 countries worldwide.
After the first round of cuts, the New York office sends applications to the Fulbright programs of these other countries. Each applicant gears their application to a particular country.
For Gage, that country was, of course, Turkey.
Associate Professor of History Richard Gamble said he thinks Gage got Fulbright in part due to his travel in Turkey — but also, of all things, his natural party-planning ability.
Fulbright scholars must be American “cultural ambassadors” to their host countries, according to the program’s website. Gage will be expected to engage with Turkish culture, while also exposing Turks to the United States.
That will include teaching conversational English and hosting events and parties, Gamble said.
“He’s just a natural at hosting these kind of events and making people feel at home and feel like an integrated part of a community,” Gamble said.
After Turkey, Gage plans on teaching or attending graduate school. He would like to, someday, start a classical school.