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For Immediate Release

Contact:         Maryjane Briant
                        News and Media Relations Director
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Maryjane.Briant@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4593
                        

Galloway, N.J. - Moving from South Jersey’s Pinelands to an island nation of pines, cedars and cypresses may require some translation, but a new cultural exchange program with European University Cyprus (EUC) will enable �鶹��ý���� students to be immersed in another culture while teaching English.

Ciara Barrick, who was awarded a Fulbright to teach English at EUC after graduating from �鶹��ý���� in 2015, teamed with David Roessel, professor of Greek Language and Literature, to apply for a Fulbright Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund award to set up the exchange.

The Ocean City, N.J. resident’s application was one of only 51 funded by the State Department, out of the more than 800 submitted by Fulbright alumni. It’s also a first for the Republic of Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean.

Barrick will be working in Cyprus this spring to set up the program, in which one �鶹��ý���� English tutor will work with EUC students, who come from variety of countries. A student from there will help set up a translation initiative at �鶹��ý����.

Naijasia Thomas, a junior majoring in Literature and minoring in Global Studies, will be the first exchange student next fall. Thomas had never traveled outside the United States before she went to Cyprus with other students last March, and it inspired her. She says she now plans to pursue a graduate degree in international relations after her tutoring stint.

“I'm from Newark, N.J., where it's not common for people go to college,” Thomas said. “Being from a rough neighborhood and being able to see the world and do well in school makes me distinctive.”

Thomas is very active on campus, serving as vice president of the �鶹��ý���� chapter of the NAACP and an Admissions student ambassador. She writes for Her Campus �鶹��ý���� and also works in the School of Arts and Humanities (ARHU).

“I'd just like to say that I came to �鶹��ý���� through the Educational Opportunity Fund program and they really helped me become the person I am today,” Thomas said. She is the secretary of the Alliance of EOF Students of N.J.

She met Barrick last spring in Cyprus. “Right away I knew she was going to be someone I looked up to,” she said. “She's incredibly knowledgeable and makes me want to work harder.”

“It is a wonderful story of what happens when one successful former �鶹��ý���� student gets to play mentor for a current successful �鶹��ý���� student,” said Roessel.                       

Barrick said Thomas and future exchange students will enroll in EUC classes and also be responsible for tutoring student assignments, much as �鶹��ý���� Writing Center tutors do now. Thomas has already taken a practicum for English tutors though the Writing Center to prepare.

“On the other side of the exchange, an EUC student will travel to the states to work in