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Fourteen. That’s how many times East Stroudsburg University graduate student Sarah Khan rewrote the essays that accompanied her winning application for a prestigious Fulbright fellowship.

Khan’s perseverance paid off, making her the first ESU student to be chosen for the highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student program, which will enable her to spend nine months teaching at a university in Turkey.

The Fulbright program, which started in 1946, is the United States government’s top international educational exchange program. Fulbrighters have gone on to be Nobel Prize winners, heads of state, prominent artists and leaders in science.

Khan, who is graduating Friday, May 8 with a master’s in education, was one of 1,900 students nationwide chosen out of more than 10,090 who applied. Starting in September, she will teach English to students at a rural Turkish university and plans to set up a mentoring program on campus in which stronger students help weaker ones.

Khan of Stroudsburg has a passion for the Fulbright mission, which seeks to cultivate mutual understanding between Americans and people in other countries.

“As a Fulbrighter, I want to create a sustainable difference,” Khan said. “I’ve always thought that education was the most empowering and grassroots way of getting rid of some of the world’s major problems.”

Mary Frances Postupack ’M 93, ESU vice president for economic development and research support, said the university is thrilled to have Khan as its first Fulbright fellow. For nearly three years, Postupack has worked with Khan, who has been the graduate assistant with the ESU Office of Sponsored Projects and Research.

“Sarah will make a wonderful cultural ambassador for the United States,” Postupack said. “She is bright, articulate, engaging and motivated and will bring her passion and considerable teaching skills to her fellowship in Turkey.”

Khan decided to apply for the Fulbright after attending a seminar at ESU last February in which a Fulbright ambassador spoke about the program.

Khan turned to Mike Laffey, ESU’s coordinator of international programs, for advice and editing of her essays – a one-page personal statement and a one-page “statement of grand purpose” — that were part of the extensive application process.

“He was an amazing help,” Khan said. “He looked through all 14 drafts of my professional statement and my personal statement. He has a very trained eye for this kind of work so I trusted his opinion.”

As the drafts piled up, she thought about just settling for “good enough.” But her resolve drove her to refine her essays even more.

“The 14 drafts – I know it sounds ridiculous but every word on that piece of paper counts,” she said. “I thought it was too important an opportunity to let go of because I got lazy at the last minute.”

Khan received the good news about winning the fellowship during a tough day of student teaching in March.

“The first thing I did was I screamed and then I started crying,” she said. She immediately called her parents and her sister, Atiba, who is also her best friend. Atiba graduates from ESU on Saturday, May 9 with a bachelor’s degree in business management.

Born in Pakistan, Sarah Khan immigrated to Canada with her family at age 8 and then they moved to Stroudsburg about five years ago. She speaks Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.

After getting her bachelor’s degree in English and linguistic and language arts at York University in Toronto, Canada, Khan started her graduate work in professional and secondary education in English language arts at ESU in 2012. She has received numerous awards, including the 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. student award and an ESU Rising Star award.

She serves on the University Senate and the Graduate Advisory Council and was a member of the Student Senate.

Khan has been an active member of the Feminist Alliance at ESU and works as a volunteer with the domestic violence and sexual assault crisis hotline of Women’s Resources of Monroe County.

Among her ESU mentors were former education professors, Dr. Reuben Yarmus and Dr. Angelo Senese. Khan said she also owes a lot to Dr. Barrel Gueye, an ESU professor who moved to Senegal, Adrienne Kotsko, Ph.D., instructor of English, James Vagliardo, Ed.D., instructor of professional and secondary education, and S. Hooshang Pazaki, Ph.D., professor of sociology.

When Khan returns from Turkey, she hopes to get a teaching job in a city such as Boston or Philadelphia. Her ultimate goal is to open up an all-girls school in Pakistan with a vocational center to teach trade skills and sustainable farming skills.

She said she seeks to approach her teaching stint in Turkey without a lot of pre-conceived notions about the culture.

“You can’t approach a country having already made generalizations or stereotypes in your mind because it’s so much harder when you have those walls up,” she said.

The Fulbright program is named for William Fulbright, who studied at Oxford University and traveled in Europe in the 1920s.
In the 1940s, as a U.S. Senator from Arkansas, Fulbright introduced legislation in Congress to use surplus war materials to sponsor student exchanges to foster global understanding. The result was the Fulbright program.

Update: November 2019
Khan spent a year in Turkey teaching English at a Turkish university, which she describes as the best year of her life.

“I think every person should get international service experience where they have to humanize someone who may seem foreign to them. Turkish people are so hospitable, and I wouldn’t have survived without the strangers in a bus station helping me at 2 a.m.,” she said.

Khan currently works for RAINN, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the United States. She is the senior curriculum training developer, creating material for hotline operators to use when assisting callers. She compiles research and practices used by other organizations to determine the best practices in helping survivors.

Recently, Khan got married to her husband who she met while backpacking in Cyprus. She still dreams of opening an all-girls school in Pakistan, where she was born. For now, Khan is focusing on her work with RAINN and giving back to the community in every way possible.