Sarah Gord '15 Receives Fulbright in Norway

Sarah Gord ’15, a history major with an English minor and an education concentration, has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Bergen, Norway.

During her time at Oberlin, Gord has filled the role of educator in many situations, allowing her to experience working with various ages of students. A native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Gord works with students at Langston Middle School as an America Reads tutor. She spent her winter terms working in middle school classrooms in Massachusetts and taking the Museum Education class at Oberlin’s Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM). She also student-taught a year 4 (third grade) class while studying abroad in Bath, England. Currently, Gord works as a docent in the AMAM and serves her peers as a writing associate in the Writing Center. Her work as a writing associate directly applies to her upcoming work in Norway, where she will be helping college students write in English, but all of her experiences contributed to her confidence as a teacher, she says.

Oberlin’s education-related course offerings such as Children and Society, Alternative Pedagogies, and Teaching and Tutoring Writing have also contributed to her skillset as an educator, Gord says. “They inspired me to think critically about education and to articulate my educational goals.”

Inspired to return abroad and interested in secondary-level teaching, Gord will teach English writing workshops to university students and co-teach a high school English class. “I am excited to gain valuable experience planning lessons and collaborating with more experienced staff members and to think about how their perspectives on education resemble and diverge from my own,” she says. She is also eager to explore an education system unlike what she has participated in so far, she says. “At this point the differences are only faintly sketched out in my mind, and I am excited to more fully understand how Norwegian education works.”

Besides learning from and practicing her passion—education—Gord also looks forward to exploring Scandinavia and traveling to other areas in Europe where she has yet to travel.