![Marie Piayai '09](https://s3.amazonaws.com/mediacdn.hamilton.edu/images/3:4/300/fulbrightmpjpg.jpg)
Marie Piayai, a candidate for May graduation from Hamilton College, has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Thailand. Piayai is a world politics major at Hamilton.
Piayai is an Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) program student. She is the Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity (HAVOC) site coordinator for Drop Everything and Read, through which student volunteers work with rural elementary students. Piayai is a resident advisor and has served as an orientation leader.
As a junior, Piayai participated in the Hamilton program in Washington, D.C. She has interned with Zogby International and worked with the Community Foundation. She volunteered with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program in 2007-08 and is the recipient of the Henry S. White Scholarship and the Women of Color Scholarship.
After her return from Thailand, Piayai plans to enter graduate school and pursue a Ph.D. in international relations with a focus on aid and education.
Piayai is the daughter of Hamilton employee Jan Piayai of Chadwicks.
The Fulbright ETA Program, an element of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, places U.S. students as English teaching assistants in schools or universities overseas, thus improving foreign students' English language abilities and knowledge of the United States while increasing their own language skills and knowledge of the host country. ETAs may also pursue individual study/research plans in addition to their teaching responsibilities.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright program is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.