Former Soccer Player Fong puts Fulbright Grant to use in Andorra
By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- Former Willamette University women's soccer player Amanda Fong ('19), who played for the Bearcats from 2015 through 2018, has been completing a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant in Andorra since early this year. Fong originally received the Fulbright Grant for the 2020-21 academic year, but due to COVID-19, she was not sent to Andorra until January of 2021. Her local school and the Andooran Ministry of Education renewed her Fulbright ETA Grant for 2021-22. Fong is from Kensington, California, where she attended El Cerrito High School.
While attending Willamette, Fong earned a bachelor's degree with a major in Biology and minors in Psychology and Mathematics. She received the Senior Scholar-Athlete Award by earning the highest cumulative grade point average among graduating women on WU's teams in 2018-19.
Fong was a forward in women's soccer during her four years at Willamette. She did not play in any games as a first-year member of the team, but she competed in 17 games in 2016 and then played in 15 games in 2017 and 15 games in 2018. She took 13 total shots, placed nine shots on goal, and earned two assists. She played in 47 games during her career while making eight starts.
This year, she has been focusing on her Fulbright ETA Grant.
"As an ETA, I work in an Andorran public school system at a secondary school, where I teach English to students ages 12-16," Fong explained. "My job as an ETA is to provide more exposure to English, help with oral and conversational English skills, and be a cultural ambassador for U.S. culture."
Andorra is a tiny country in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. The population is about 76,000.
"You can drive across the country in an hour," Fong explained. "It's home to some of the most beautiful mountains. The country quite literally sits in the mountain range, so all you see at any place in the country are mountains. The official language is Catalan and it is a co-principality, meaning that officially, there are two co-princes of Andorra, one being the president of France and the other being the Bishop of La Seu D'Urgell. It has an incredibly long and rich history and most people are so amazed how it was never invaded and conquered and remained independent. It is not difficult to get to, although it is three hours from the nearest big, international airport. So you need to take a bus from the airport."
Once Fong arrived in Andorra, she was ready to teach English to her students and to interact with local citizens. She learned that English is not the first language -- or even the second language -- for many of her students.
"I think the biggest challenge is getting students motivated to study English," Fong said. "For many of them, it's the fourth or fifth language they are learning (most Andorrans speak Catalan, Spanish, French, and then study English and other languages). So, I take on the responsibility to motivate students, really connect with them, and figure out a way for them to connect with the language and culture."
Although Fong has been working as a teacher, she has also learned a lot since arriving in Europe. Her Fulbright Grant has allowed her to become truly meshed with her host country.
"I have really enjoyed learning about the traditions and history here, learning Catalan and practicing my language skills, getting to know the people here, and exploring the mountains," Fong noted. "Andorra is multicultural, with large Spanish and French influences in its culture, but also because there are so many people from around the world who come to live in Andorra. So I've connected with some really amazing people from different countries and learned their stories. I've also made friends with local Andorrans who have rich Andorran histories."
Much of what she has learned has occurred during her free time. It's been a tremendous chance to take in a new country and new traditions.
"I've gotten involved with the community outside of school by volunteering at the dog shelter and local cultural festivals," Fong explained. "I am someone who really thrives in new situations, so I have just been absorbing everything here and loving it. I love the multilingual aspects too -- with so many languages spoken here, people switch between languages in the same conversation, sometimes even the same sentence without noticing! Andorra is also a very nature-based country too, so I am loving the hiking, skiing, biking, and other activities. It is ingrained in the schools too, so I've been able to have field trips for activities like this and further bond with them."
Fong has discovered how much she enjoys teaching. She sees her classroom as a great place to form friendships and to learn.
"Beyond everything though, I love being in the classroom ... I've been teaching since I graduated in various international programs," Fong said. "I love teaching so much. I love getting to see familiar faces in school and see students grow, and connect with them and watch how our bonds grow over time. They are really curious about American culture -- they hear, see, and know so much from media and news, but personally know very few Americans at that age. For some, I'm the first American they've met.
As a teacher, Fong can bring her experiences from America to Andorra. She is able to help her students gain an appreciation of the U.S. and of different cultures in general.
"I love being able to share my perspective of U.S. culture," Fong noted. "I make all my lesson plans from scratch, including lessons on U.S. history and its cultural dimensions, race and immigration, individualism in America, and a lot of the recent social justice movements. It's been awesome getting to discuss these issues with students who have a completely different perspective growing up in a different country, but who are curious about the way the U.S. sees the same issues."
Her success as a Fullbright ETA Grant recipient has been possible in part by the things she learned as a Willamette women's soccer player. In particular, her confidence as a communicator has had a major impact on her ability to work with her students.
"Communication is one of the most important skills needed in life and also one of the hardest to learn and grow," Fong asserted. "But our soccer team had such a supportive and open environment, cultivated by everyone, that when things got difficult or we ran into obstacles, we were able to open the dialogue, have a conversation about it, think through things together, listen to each other, and figure out a way forward. We supported each other no matter what, and stuck together as a team to talk about the really hard stuff (mental health, systemic obstacles, teammates going through tough situations). That's definitely rare on a team, to have that maturity and communal goal to want to grow through everything together, and I do not take it for granted.
"Being in that environment definitely helped me be a better communicator beyond sports and beyond college," Fong said. "I've gotten to see how that experience has shaped me to be more resilient in situations in foreign countries where you are always going to run into obstacles and need to communicate through it."
She has positive recollections from her years on the WU women's soccer team. Many were shared with teammates away from practice and the soccer field.
"My greatest memories would be just all the little moments together with the team," Fong commented. "Not only on the field, but many of them were off the field. The big moments were memorable, like big wins against the Whits (Whitworth and Whitman) on the road or sitting near the top of the league with all our wins, but it's all those little, funny moments as a team that built our community together that I look back on the most ... how much we came together and how supportive and open the team was. The pregame rituals, the bus rides, the locker room shenanigans ... those things. So many good memories. And a lot of overtime golden goal wins!"
Even now, Fong hopes to continue to be involved with soccer.
"Next year, I hope to get involved with the local soccer clubs and help to coach a team or play with an adult team," Fong said. "Being in Europe, everyone is a huge soccer fan and people here are FC Barcelona fans."