Grebe '11 Awarded Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Turkey

William Grebe ’11, of Clifton Park, N.Y., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Turkey, where he will teach English to Turkish students. He leaves in September.

A religious studies and classics double major, Grebe has been long interested in ancient and modern history as well as inter-religious understanding.

“My interest in Christian-Muslim interaction probably stems from the fact that I lived on Long Island when 9/11 occurred. Everyone where I lived knew someone who was there, and most knew someone who had been killed. I wanted to know why the attacks happened. Through a long series of steps, this curiosity eventually led to my broad interest in Islam and learning more about peaceful coexistence,” he said.

"I stand to gain a lot of lived knowledge of Christian and Islamic history, and of the interaction between the two traditions, which interaction has been going on remarkably peacefully in Turkey for about twelve centuries," he wrote in his personal statement to the Fulbright program.

At Holy Cross, Grebe was deeply involved in campus ministry. He was head liturgical coordinator and lector, and volunteered at St. Mary’s Nursing Home, Almost Home Halfway House and Great Brook Valley Kids’ Club through Holy Cross’ Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD). Last year, he received a Fund for Theological Education Undergraduate Fellowship, which recognizes students who have gifts for leadership and are exploring ministry as a vocation. He was a Lilly Ministry intern at St. John’s-St. Ann’s Church in Albany, N.Y. in summer 2008 and a research intern at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany in summer 2009.

In addition, he was a member of four honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa (national academic honor society), Alpha Sigma Nu (national Jesuit honor society), Theta Alpha Kappa (religious studies honor society) and Eta Sigma Phi (classics honor society).

Last year, he spent a semester in Rome studying classics through Holy Cross’ Study Abroad program.

Grebe hopes to become a professor of philosophy of religion, specializing in Christian-Muslim interaction.

Each year approximately 1,000 college students are awarded grants through the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. Fulbright grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since the program’s inception in 1946, more than 250,000 participants—chosen for their leadership potential—have had the opportunity to observe each other’s political, economic and cultural institutions.

Read about this year’s other Holy Cross Fulbright Grant recipients: Francesca Bruzzese '11, Jennifer Caffrey '11, Kerry Drury '11, Kristen Dunlap '08, Herma Gjinko '11, Jamie McCarthy '11, Thomas McGlynn '11 and Kathryn Simison '11 and Abigail Chorlton Riskind '11.