When college students receive their diplomas and officially become graduates, people often say they are being sent out into the world.
For many, this means landing a job somewhere in the United States and moving there, whether it’s an hour away from home or across the country.
But for three Auburn students, entering the real world at graduation takes on a more literal meaning.
Catherine Tabor, senior in English literature and German; Rachael Gamlin, senior in journalism and political science; and Brianna Gorman, senior in German, are leaving after graduation to live and teach in Europe.
Tabor and Gorman both received the Fulbright Scholarship, which gives them the opportunity to go to Europe to teach English.
More specifically, Tabor will be in Austria working at two different schools.
Tabor will be working at a business trade school where high school-aged students can attend as an alternative to high school.
At the other school, Tabor will be partnered with a charity that helps children with mental and physical disabilities, a personal cause for her. Tabor said working with children with disabilities was her main focus when applying for the Fulbright Scholarship and is the part of her trip she is most excited for.
“My siblings and I have dealt with different physical and mental disabilities, so it’s something that is really close to my heart to be doing,” Tabor said. “One of my sisters has autism, and the facility I’ll be working at, they do a lot of work with children with autism and things like that.”
While teaching will be a new hat for Tabor, she said between helping with her sister and her volunteer work at Lee County Autism Resource & Advocacy, she feels she has enough experience, so she won’t be a fish out of water.
While in Austria, Tabor will also be taking sociology classes at the University of Vienna.
Gorman will be in Germany in September but does not know where she will be teaching yet.
However, she is excited to teach students so they can have the same positive experience learning English that she had learning German.
Gorman said being awarded the Fulbright and getting the chance to head back to Germany, where she studied abroad last year, was important to her, so she was ecstatic when she discovered she had received the scholarship.
“It was honestly one of the best days of my life,” Gorman said. “I’ve never wanted anything more than the Fulbright Scholarship, so it was definitely a day that I will always remember.”
While in Europe, Gorman said she is looking forward to traveling to some of the many places she still wants to go.
Destinations at the top of her list include Portugal and Greece, both of which she hopes to travel to soon after her arrival in September so she can visit while the weather is still nice.
Gamlin will be moving to France for seven months in September after she finishes her summer internship at the Birmingham Business Journal.
Through her French minor, she will have the opportunity to teach English at a school outside of Paris through a program the French Embassy offers. The program was a perfect fit for Gamlin, who wanted a gap year before going to graduate school at John Hopkins where she will study international affairs.
Gamlin said she is excited to be going abroad but is also a little nervous because she will be going alone and will not even have an apartment when she arrives.
“I have to find an apartment and stuff, which is scary,” Gamlin said. “I’m moving there without one, but apparently that is the thing to do.”
Like Tabor and Gorman, Gamlin has never taught before but said as a journalism major she has a good command over the English language, which will make it easier to teach the subject.
“I’ve always loved French and … I may not be in education, but if we are teaching English, you know, I’m fairly decent at that,” Gamlin said.
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