Wrangell High and Montana State grad Kayla Hay earns Fulbright to teach in Germany

Wrangell High School graduate Kayla Hay was always interested in learning German. Her great-grandparents emigrated from Austria to Alaska in the 1920s, she said, and she was intrigued by different cultures and wanted to be able to communicate with her relatives who remained in Austria.

Hay didn't have the opportunity to take German as a student in Wrangell (class of 2018), but when she enrolled at Montana State University in Bozeman that fall, she signed up for a basic German language class her freshman year.

"I fell in love with it," she said. "There is such a nice little German community at MSU. I ended up sticking with it."

Hay, who is the first person in her family to go to college and who aspires to be a teacher, graduated from Montana State last Friday with dual degrees in secondary education and German. What's more, Hay received a Fulbright English teaching assistantship to Germany, which she believes will bolster her career goals.

"I was awestruck when I found out (about the Fulbright)," she said. "I think the experience itself is going to be extremely valuable. And it feels like a culmination of all the time and effort I've put into school and extracurriculars over the years. It's sort of proof that everything has paid off."

In September, Hay will head to Germany for orientation for the Fulbright and remain there through the end of June 2024. She hopes for a teaching job in the states next fall, maybe even Alaska.

She doesn't know yet in which German school or town she will be placed, but she does know that she will be in the state of Bavaria and will work with a school's head English teacher to teach students English and about American culture and customs. She also hopes to do additional projects within the school, such as starting an English club.

"I'm really excited to immerse myself in a new culture and new language," Hay said. "I really want to teach German in the U.S. eventually, and having time immersed in the country will make me a much more qualified German educator than if I hadn't had that time over there."

The best part of winning a Fulbright and what she looks forward to the most? "It's so hard to answer."

Hay said she has wanted to be a teacher for as long as she can remember, noting that as a kid, she often talked her younger brother into playing school during their summer breaks.

"I love learning and I love working with kids," she said. "I just thought it would be fun to teach others and a cool career path for me."

She completed her student teaching this semester in a seventh-grade life science classroom in Gig Harbor, Washington. While she had previously thought she wanted to be a high school teacher, the experience made her think she might like to teach middle school students instead.

"I love these middle kids so much," she said. "They're very funny, quirky kids. They're kind of in-between feeling too cool for school - like a lot of the older kids - but also engaged in academics and a little more mature. You can have conversations, joke around with them, have fun."

In addition to her classes, Hay worked while she was a student, including at a bakery on campus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, while taking classes online, she worked at a hospital, doing COVID-19 testing and screening.

Hay noted that she had always hoped to study abroad as a college student, but because of the pandemic it wasn't an option. Still, she traveled to Austria last summer to spend time with family and strengthen her language skills - and spent a weekend in Berlin, her only time in Germany - and she looks forward to building on those experiences during her Fulbright experience.

"It's a little daunting and scary to be tossed into a new country so far away from home for that long, but I'm excited about it overall."