Student of German Wins Full Ride to Middlebury’s Prestigious German Immersion Summer Program and More

Bianca Isabella Zarate Gonzalez was recently awarded a full scholarship to the Middlebury German Language School, a 7-week program that is the most prestigious language immersion program in the country and usually carries a price tag of over $11,000.

Isabella is a double major in Language, Business and Culture with a Concentration in German; and Data Science. In the German program, she has taught German to elementary school students as a leader in the SPARK for German after-school program, served as President of the Montclair State University chapter of the Delta Phi Alpha National German Honor Society, and worked as a research assistant with Dr. LaFountain last summer as part of the Montclair State University Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Program.

As a research assistant, Isabella got to apply both of her major areas of study, creating and analyzing survey data that document outcomes for students at four colleges participating in SPARK for German community-engaged teaching partnerships. Isabella also got to present the results of this research at the 2023 American Convention of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in Chicago, and she is a co-author of an article entitled “Community Engagement and German Teacher Training in Four American ‘SPARK for German’ Teaching Labs” that is forthcoming in the German pedagogy journal Kontexte. 

Isabella’s scholarship is one of 8 highly competitive scholarships that Middlebury awards to students at Historically Black Colleges, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic Serving Universities. It is truly exceptional that Montclair State University has had two back-to-back winners of this scholarship, with Avelisse Guzman winning the scholarship for the Middlebury German School in 2023. Dr. Pascale LaFountain comments, “Student achievements such as these help us continue to live up to the high standards for which we were awarded the German Center of Excellence title.”

Following her summer at Middlebury, Isabella will continue her German language immersion with a year in Austria, as she is also one of two winners of the Graz Sister City Scholarship, which covers students tuition and housing expenses for a full year of study abroad. After returning to complete her degree, Isabella plans to pursue a career in the international tech industry.