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Darla Slipke
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OSU grad heading for South Korea
When Emilee Lehenbauer heard that Fulbright teaching assistants to South Korea would have to adapt to a very different culture and live without much privacy, she decided that was right up her alley.
“I love changes,” she said. “There’s nothing I can’t adapt to.”
Lehenbauer, a Stillwater resident since fifth grade and a 2009 Oklahoma State graduate, left Friday for a Fulbright English teaching assistantship to South Korea. She said the cultural description the Fulbright program gave for South Korea matched her own enthusiasm and desire for adventure.
Lehenbauer has seized every opportunity to travel since her first trip abroad to Cambridge during the summer before her junior year at OSU as part of the university’s summer program at Cambridge University.
“I just for sure got bit by the travel bug,” she said.
She traveled back to Cambridge the next summer and spent some time in Ireland, then went to South Africa to teach English through the Thanda after-school program the next year.
Lehenbauer said she was grateful for the opportunities OSU has created for her, and attending college in her hometown was extra special.
“I have been all over the place in college,” she said. “Any activity or organization that came up, I jumped at. It really can be a whole different world if you choose to make it that way.”
Lehenbauer served as vice president and president of the Student Government Association during her last two years at OSU. Through those positions, she worked to increase communication between the city and the university.
Vice Mayor Tom Dugger said Lehenbauer is a knowledgeable and accomplished person, who will make a great ambassador.
“She has the heart and soul of Stillwater running through her veins and she has the heart and soul of OSU as well,” he said. “I think the U.S. and OSU are going to be very, very proud of a young lady in South Korea during the next year because she will represent both well in my opinion.”
Lori Krase-Cayton, senior administrative support specialist for SGA, said her favorite memories of working with Lehenbauer were early in the morning when most students were sleeping or during a break when the office was “dead quiet” and Lehenbauer came wandering in to work.
She said Lehenbauer’s next step is a big one, but she will thrive during her Fulbright endeavor.
Lehenbauer will complete a six-week intensive language and cultural training session in South Korea before she is assigned to a community where she will live with a Korean family and teach conversational English to middle school and high school students.
“It’s exciting because you can never know what to expect, and I love that element of it,” she said.
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