Lakewood Grad Elaban Earns Fulbright Honor

 graduate Madeleine Elaban has earned a prestigious Teaching Assistantship through the Austrian Fulbright Commission.

School officials announced this week that she will teach English and Austrian culture to Austrian students in the alpine village of Feldkirch. The students are aged 18-22 and are studying to be elementary and middle school teachers.

Elaban is set to graduate from Ohio University this summer with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. Elaban, a 2008 Lakewood graduate, is a member of OU’s German Club and previously studied in Austria for three months.

Elaban is the third Lakewood High graduate to earn a Fulbright position in the last two years.

Ohio State graduate Adrienne Strong won a research scholarship to study medical anthropology in Tanzania. Lucia Stavros, a New England Conservatory of Music graduate, won a Fulbright to study the harp in France. Both Strong and Stavros won in 2010.

Every year, close to 500 students apply with only 140 spots available.

According to the press release, Elaban is a member of the Anthropology Club at OU and was recently inducted into the college’s Anthropology Honors Fraternity. Elaban is part of the German Film Club and played in the Symphony Orchestra for two years.