Paris Mercurio ’23 Earns Fulbright to Romania

The Scotch Plains, New Jersey, native previously received a Fulbright to the Czech Republic, but spent the last two years as a Shansi Fellow to Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 

As part of the fellowship, she leads English speaking and academic writing lectures and tutorials for undergraduate first-year English Literature majors, as well as an elective creative writing class, she says. 

“About halfway through my first year of Shansi, I knew that I really enjoyed what I was doing at the university, and I wanted to find a way to keep building upon my experience in a new context,” Mercurio explains. “The role of a Fulbright ETA in Romania is very similar to my current role, and I’m excited to continue teaching college students.”

How does pursuing the Fulbright align with your post-college life and career goals? 

One of my biggest goals upon graduating from Oberlin was to live abroad and learn about cultures and parts of the world that I had yet to experience. After two years of getting to know Indonesia, I’m excited to move to a region that I’ve never visited before and take on the challenges that come with that.

Where specifically will you be doing—and what are you looking forward to the most?

I will be assisting the faculty and helping to provide English language education to students at Ovidius University in Constanta. I am really excited to be doing my Fulbright in a country with such a deep, multilayered, multicultural history. 

Constanta in particular is such an exciting city. It’s one of the oldest cities in Europe, with a wide range of cultural influences, historically having been ruled by several empires and part of various other countries over the centuries. I have also been exploring the very interesting literature and music emerging from Romania, and I am very eager to explore those scenes in person. 

How did Oberlin influence you to pursue the Fulbright?
I owe so much of my current path to the faculty, staff, and students I met during my time at Oberlin. Beyond the obvious, that the Shansi Fellowship is an option open only to Oberlin alumni, I had so many experiences at Oberlin that set me on this journey and subsequently reaffirmed my aspirations. 

Getting to participate in the Writers in the Schools program my senior year was one of my most valuable and fulfilling learning experiences, and I still find myself constantly coming back to the teaching skills I developed through my residency at Langston Middle School, where I taught poetry to seventh grade students. I feel like I unlocked so many powerful ideas and tools through the experience that continue to inspire and motivate my teaching. 

What’s the best advice you’ve received from your Oberlin faculty mentors? 

It was an informational interview with Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers ’07 during my third year that initially sparked my interest in pursuing a Shansi Fellowship, as professor Rogers is a Shansi alum herself. As her TA, I got to observe her classroom presence and watch how she guides lessons and discussions, which was hugely helpful to me in developing my own teaching style and flow. 

While I was working on my Fulbright application, I had a conversation with the creative writing department’s chair, Emily Barton, that has really stuck in my head. She spoke about how a necessary part of the writing process is just living life and taking lots of notes. I definitely feel like I’ve been doing a lot of living these past couple years, and perhaps I’ve been a little less laser-focused on serious writing than I had initially intended. 

Post-graduation, it sometimes feels like there’s this rush to just get wherever you’re supposed to go. Professor Barton’s words served as a needed reminder that creative work often operates on its own timeline, and sometimes being too tightly wound or single-minded can be counterintuitive to the process. The process is the whole point.

If you’re a rising or graduating senior interested in Fulbright, connect with Fellowships & Awards to learn more about pursuing research or an arts project, obtaining a graduate degree, or teaching English in a foreign country of your choice following graduation.