Department of Language and Literature
News: International Profile: Fulbright Olfa Souissi

9/24/2007 | The Benedictine University community welcomes Olfa Souissi from Tunisia. She was granted a Fulbright award, which allowed her to come to America in order to teach Arabic for the entire academic year as well as to continue her own studies. She arrived on August 19 and had a few words about coming to a different country.

“I cherish my country very much, and I was very excited to come to the U.S.,” said Souissi. “I don't have any stereotypes about the U.S. or any prejudices…You cannot judge countries…We have to be respectful, we have to be tolerant with people because we actually share a humanity and we are all human beings.” About the United States she said, “I feel very comfortable…America is more green than Tunisia…it's very clean.”

Souissi is teaching under a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program. The State Department oversees the Fulbright award. The Institute of International Education helps administer the program.

Souissi is taking a few classes here for credit including a drawing class, Research Methods and Instructional Method and Language Arts. In her Research Methods class, she has decided on a thesis focused about the effective teaching methods of Arabic to monolingual speakers.

She is an instructor for Elementary Arabic I and Intermediate Arabic I. “The hardest task about teaching Arabic is how can we teach Arabic effectively as a new language. How can we succeed to make the students love the language and be exposed above all to the richness and the beauty of the Arabic language?” Souissi expresses joy when students embrace and learn the language.

Souissi, 24, has two brothers and is the oldest of her siblings and this is her first time in America. She has been playing volleyball for twelve years, enjoys painting, and can play a little qanun, an instrument similar to a harp.

She noted that she would love to bring her family to America and live here.

article by Fadi Shihadeh, courtesy of The Candor (9/24/07 issue)