We Are Knox...

Graduating Knox College senior Joanna Stack, an anthropology and sociology
major from Chicago, Illinois, loves international travel and learning about
other cultures.

"I think it's important to stay in one place for a significant amount of time to really understand it," said Stack, who recently was chosen to receive a highly regarded Fulbright Fellowship for international research and teaching. She will teach English in India, where she also plans to volunteer with a nonprofit organization.

As a Knox student, she studied abroad at Peking University in Beijing, China, for nine months and spent six weeks teaching English to middle school and high school students in Taiwan. She discovered a "passion for teaching" that inspired her to apply for the Fulbright.

"I wanted a new international experience," she said. "This is going to be completely new for me. I'm excited. I think it will definitely be a challenge, and I'm looking forward to it."

Stack, who has a minor in Chinese studies, hopes someday to work with a nonprofit organization that has an international focus. "The world is becoming increasingly interdependent," she said. "In the future, I would like to work internationally to promote cooperation and peace between nations."

A member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and the Knox College Chinese Club, she has volunteered as a literacy tutor, played intramural soccer, and completed a senior research project for her anthropology-sociology major that blended her main academic interests. Her research focused on Chinese students at Knox and what they hoped to accomplish after finishing college.

"A lot of them wanted to stay abroad, but there's this challenge that they faced," she said. "In China, it's a really big deal to take care of your family. So they're trying to deal with these global aspirations -- wanting to stay abroad -- but also being able to take care of their families, financially and otherwise."

Stack believes her experiences at Knox played a key role in helping her to land the Fulbright Fellowship.

"I think the liberal arts experience in general, and especially at Knox, helped a lot because I've been able to try my hand at so many different things that otherwise I might not have been able to," she said. "Having a small community really has given me confidence in my own abilities. Knowing my professors and getting feedback from them has helped me develop as a person."