Local Fulbright Scholar Heading to Argentina

Jacob Kaplove of Novato was one of seven students from Bates College in Maine to receive Fulbright grants to teach and conduct research at places around the world this summer.

Kaplove, a psychology major, is teaching English in Argentina as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sending some 1,500 U.S. citizens abroad each year.
The academic grants offer an academic year of support for study and/or research in projects of the recipients' design. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students’ English and knowledge of the United States.

Kaplove has worked closely with the Somali community in Lewiston, Maine, as the program director for Refugee Volunteers, a program that promotes cross-cultural learning and exchange between Bates students and refugee families. He has worked as a researcher for Project SHIFA, an in-school program designed to promote the mental health of young Somali refugees, and as a Bonner Leader, a participant in a national program that promotes student development through community work.

He was one of two Bates students to receive the 2012 Heart & Soul Award from the Maine Campus Compact, recognizing outstanding contributions to the community.

Kaplove, who has done volunteer work in Central America, was attracted to Argentina in part because of the opportunity to work in a training college for teachers of English. This setting, he says, "will help to sustain my impact as my students will go on to teach future generations about the English language."

In addition to teaching English in Argentina, Kaplove will work in a youth mentoring program and take courses in Spanish literature and public health. After Argentina, he plans to apply to medical school with the goal of practicing family medicine, which will allow him to continue working with Latino immigrants and refugee populations.

Bates was founded in 1855 on bedrock principles of civil rights, human dignity, service to the wider world, and the worth of higher education. Bates has always admitted students without regard to race, religion, national origin or gender.

— From Bates College media relations