While at UTC, senior Emma Sprayberry has studied in Korea, Germany, Canada, and Spain and is Panama-bound for a study-abroad opportunity in March. Photo by Oliver Lampley.
For the typical college senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the spring semester is filled with final moments soaking in everything that Chattanooga has to offer and job searching before graduation.
For Innovations and Honors student Emma Sprayberry, the senior year is filled with traveling and perfecting her resume.
Sprayberry is a double major in Spanish and international studies concentrating on East Asia and a minor in anthropology.
While at UTC, Sprayberry has studied in Korea, Germany, Canada, and Spain and is Panama-bound for a study-abroad opportunity in March.
How has she managed all the traveling? Sprayberry utilized study abroad resources available at the Center of Global Education (CGE) and applied for programs aligned with her academic and professional aspirations.
“The (CGE) advisors were really helpful for me,” Sprayberry said. “Any time I would have a question, I would mostly email (Director of Study Abroad Programs) Laura Livermore. I was so grateful she wasn’t getting annoyed with my persistence.”
Sprayberry said this correspondence with CGE was helpful in her study abroad goals and experience. The advisors would tell her some of the pros and cons of study abroad programs that interested her and were able to provide her with financial resources.
“I really wanted to build my knowledge about the world around me because I’m interested in international affairs and helping people in migrant communities or immigrants or people abroad somehow,” she said.
In the future, Sprayberry hopes to work with UNICEF or another international non-profit organization that works with immigrant or minority populations.
In 2022, Emma Sprayberry landed a Fulbright Canada Mitacs Globalink research opportunity at the University of Saskatchewan and a Killam Fellowship to McGill University in Montreal. Photo courtesy of Emma Sprayberry.
She started her study abroad journey back in 2021. COVID-19 restrictions and a feeling of not being able to do what she wanted inspired her to look beyond UTC. She went on her first abroad trip to Korea that summer through the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program.
After she returned to UTC, she began working in the UTC Office of National Scholarships, which provides students from all over campus with scholarship resources. While assisting with the office’s social media needs and other tasks, she was introduced to different programs that interested her.
She landed a Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink research internship, spending the summer of 2022 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and discovering a passion for wanting to help immigrant populations. During the internship, students were placed on a research project led by a professor based on their area of interest.
“I was doing a lot of literature review-type things, but that project got me interested in immigrant affairs,” she said.
She also said that studying abroad was an essential part of her UTC experience and a very positive one.
“I never dreamed that I would be able to go to so many places,” she said, “and I’m trying to take advantage of these opportunities because my family—we never really traveled much.
“I just want to inspire more people to travel and, I don’t know, just take risks.”
Sprayberry has applied for the Payne Fellowship, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Taiwan and the Rangel Fellowship. She has been told she is a finalist, semi-finalist and first alternate for these programs.
The Payne Fellowship and Rangel Fellowship programs support fellows through graduate school with the end goal of them becoming Foreign Service Officers for the U.S. government. The Fulbright ETA program sends winners to classrooms overseas to assist English teachers.
Not only is Sprayberry active abroad, but she’s also active on campus.
She was one of the founders of the Asian Student Association, which focuses on connecting Asian students and sharing Asian culture with the UTC community. She served as president for two years.
“I think (study abroad) definitely expands your worldview,” Sprayberry said. “It exposes you to new cultures and information that you might not just read out of a textbook.”
Learn More
Office of National Scholarships
Around the world with Emma Sprayberry (photos courtesy of Emma Sprayberry)
Emma Sprayberry at Yongin Daejanggeum Park in Yongin, South Korea. Sprayberry studied in Korea during summer 2021.
