A class of German high school students will be experiencing one of Baker University’s own come September.

Senior Justine Greve was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Greve is the first Baker student to receive a Fulbright Scholarship since 1970.

The scholarship will send Greve to Germany, where she will act as a teaching assistant in an English classroom in a German high school.

Greve discovered the scholarship while studying abroad last year in Heidelberg, Germany.

“One of the directors of the program kind of told me about the scholarship and suggested it, and I thought it sounded interesting,” she said.     “I thought it would be a good way to see if I enjoyed teaching and whether or not I maybe wanted to go into that later.”

Greve will be a teaching assistant from September to June of next year after going through what she said was a “pretty involved process.”

“She is so on top of things as students would say,” said Professor of English Lucy Price, who is Baker’s contact for the Fulbright Scholarship. “She’s totally responsible and takes the initiative herself.”

Greve’s hard work is just one of the things Associate Professor of German Cynthia Appl said makes her deserving of this award.

“Justine has, from the get-go, put 100 percent or more in everything she’s done for my classes, and one thing about Justine is that I always have the feeling that she’s not just taking classes in order to reach a certain goal, but she’s always really interested in the material,” Appl said. “She has a genuine intellectual curiosity and takes advantage of every learning opportunity. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of such an honor than Justine.”

Greve suspects she’ll teach mostly American culture, but possibly some British information as well.

“I’m just kind of helping the teacher give the students a perspective from someone who actually lives in an English-speaking country and who speaks it as their native language,” she said.

Greve admits, however, that some aspects of the experience, like day-to-day activities, make her nervous when she thinks about them.

“I get nervous about all the things you have to go through to live there. Like finding a place to live and all of the practical stuff,” she said. “Getting the right forms filled out and opening up your bank account, and all of those daily things like finding a doctor or whatever make me nervous.”

Greve will find out exactly which German city she’ll be teaching in within the next month or so, but has no doubts that it will be a fun experience.

“I’m mostly excited right now,” Greve said.