UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — About one month before Penn State's spring commencement in May, Alex Almonte, class of 2024 in music education, received a letter in the mail from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which he had been waiting for since July 2023. That evening at dinner, surrounded by some of those closest to him, he opened it.
The letter informed him that he was selected to travel to Taiwan where he will serve as an English teaching assistant for the 2024–25 school year as part of the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Almonte is one of 10 Penn Staters to earn the honor this year.
“When I opened the letter, I was absolutely ecstatic,” Almonte said. “It felt, and still feels, surreal to be chosen for a Fulbright Award.”
Established in 1946 by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program offers graduating college seniors, graduate students and young professionals the opportunity to work, live and learn abroad based on their academic and professional achievement, as well as their record of service and leadership potential.
Almonte came to Penn State from Pittsburgh in 2020. His decision to major in music education was steered by the positive impact music had on his life from a young age.
“Growing up, I was super shy and had a hard time making friends,” Almonte said. “Thanks to the musical experiences offered by my school and community, I gained confidence and found ‘my people.’”
As his journey to becoming a music educator progressed, he said, he was drawn to American Sign Language and Deaf culture — more specifically, he said, the way that Deaf culture emphasizes the visual environment.
“This perspective advised my music education degree by illuminating how communication can be facilitated through physical space around us,” Almonte said. “This understanding has significantly improved my own teaching and learning, making me view the world through a more multimodal lens.”
Through his research and work within the Deafness and Hearing Studies minor program, Almonte, a Schreyer Scholar, combined disciplines to produce his Schreyer Honors College research thesis titled “Music, More Than Sound: Examining the Musical Experiences of d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals.”
“When I first came to college, I thought that I needed to hyperfocus on one path,” Almonte said. “Penn State challenged that idea and showed me that it’s incredibly valuable to have multiple interests.”
That cross-disciplinary mindset informed his educational choices, including three study-abroad programs in Mexico, England and Ireland respectively. Those cultural experiences were transformational, he said, and fueled his decision to apply to the Fulbright Program.
When researching the various countries in which he could pursue a Fulbright English teaching assistantship, Almonte said he was drawn to Taiwan’s diverse educational and musical landscape. Taiwan has a complex cultural history that has been developed through a variety of influences from Western nations, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan’s indigenous communities, Almonte explained. These influences have prompted an intricate development of intercultural pedagogy in Taiwan’s education curricula.
“With this in mind, I knew the opportunity to teach in Taiwan would allow me to better understand how to integrate intercultural learning within American music education more effectively,” Almonte said.
During the 2024-25 school year, he will live in Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, where he will work alongside a local teacher to provide English language and American culture instruction.
“Diving into the language and culture of Taiwan will not only be educationally enriching but will also help me better understand the process of supporting students of varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds,” Almonte said.
As he prepares for his journey, Almonte said that when he reflects on his time at Penn State, the experience at the University exceeded his expectations and prepared him for the future.
“Penn State showed me that the world is too big not to explore it,” Almonte said. “And most importantly, it showed me that success does not look one certain way — that I define my own success.”