By: Arden Woodall

During the fall of her sophomore year at Purdue, Arden Woodall, an English Education major, Spanish and Creative Writing minor from the College of Liberal Arts, spent Thursday evenings participating in Ayuda y Aprende, an extracurricular language exchange program between Colombian UREP-C students learning English and Purdue students learning Spanish.

The stories and cultures UREP-C students shared with Arden during her conversations in Ayuda y Aprende sparked her curiosity. She especially appreciated their shared investment and dedication to social justice issues like gender equality and environmentalism. Her experiences with the UREP-C students inspired Arden to choose Colombia as her country of application for the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship scholarship program. Fulbright ETAs are placed all over the country to help Colombian university students learn English. The program provides grantees with the unique opportunity to immerse in the culture and build mutual understanding while also promoting cultural diplomacy and impacting communities in a positive way.

As one of the most popular and competitive countries in the Fulbright program, Colombia awarded just 50 grants out of 250 applications, and Arden is the first-ever Purdue student to win a grant to Colombia. Following her graduation from Purdue in May of 2024, she moved to the country’s capital, Bogotá, to begin her grant. She teaches at a university called ÚNICA (Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana), a private, non-profit higher education institution where her students pursue undergraduate and graduate studies in Bilingual Education. Arden will not return to the U.S. until May 31st, 2025, so she will get to finish the academic year with her students.

She arrived in Bogotá on July 29th, 2024 and has loved learning and sharing in the culture of her new home with students and friends. During the week, she assists in six different levels of English classes, facilitates extracurricular field trips and conversation clubs similar to Ayuda y Aprende, and provides private tutoring sessions to groups and individuals.

An important aspect of Arden’s Fulbright experience is also the requirement of a social project. Grantees are asked to use their time outside of work to get active in the community to ensure immersion and exchange. In search of a social project, Arden has enjoyed a wide variety of all Bogotá has to offer. From taking a coffee tour at la Federación Nacional de Cafeteros and seeing a comedy show at Casa Cuhuba to attending various concerts and hiking trails like the Matarredonda and Monserrate, Arden has adored her time in Colombia so far and looks forward to the coming months.

Click here to learn more about the Purdue students that were offered Fulbright grants.

You can access here Arden's blog to follow her journey in Colombia!