Kristina Conrad (鈥�18) is the second alumna in Biola鈥檚 recent history to participate in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the largest international fellowship program in the U.S. that offers one-year grants for students to study, conduct research or teach English in various parts of the world. While at Biola, Conrad majored in English with a concentration in secondary instruction, and previously received the Critical Language Scholarship in 2017, a competitive program that allowed her to study Azerbaijani in a two-month intensive program.

鈥淚n 2016, I read a news article on my phone 鈥� it just popped up 鈥� about Azerbaijan. I didn鈥檛 remember where Azerbaijan was, so I typed it into Google. The first article that came up included their traditional musical form called meykhana, which is called native rap.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檝e been playing the clarinet since I was 12 and rapping for the last six years, and I found out that this musical form combines both clarinet and freestyle poetry. So when I heard that my two passions could collide, I thought, 鈥業 need to find out more about this!鈥欌€�

鈥淏ecause of the Upper Room hip-hop club at Biola, I wanted to start a similar hip-hop club here for my students in Azerbaijan. I wanted to do it in a way where I get to learn about Azerbaijani hip-hop and different types of Azerbaijani poetry and then be able to share about American hip-hop and other genres of American poetry as well.鈥�

鈥淚 hope that gives my students an opportunity to use English in a more colloquial manner, so that it鈥檚 not just classroom English.鈥�

鈥淸Azerbaijani is] just a very friendly environment. There鈥檚 such a tradition of hospitality. Because I鈥檓 clearly a foreigner, everyone wants to help me wherever I go. I had to go buy something at the store last night and the lady who helped me ended up giving me her phone number and inviting me to her home.鈥�

鈥淥ne way I鈥檝e been seeing the Lord recently is as an adventure tour guide, and that just being a believer is full of joy and adventure, but safety, too. ... He puts together these adventures for all of us, but then in leading us on those, like a good tour guide, instead of just [saying], 鈥極K, here鈥檚 your adventure,鈥� [he says], 鈥榃ell, here鈥檚 an adventure, and I鈥檓 going to walk with you into it.鈥� I felt like that鈥檚 what this Fulbright is like for me.鈥�

鈥� Interview by Joanna Wu

Photo courtesy of Kristina Conrad