SHARING STORIES ABOUT THE SOUTH: Amelia Rivers is pictured with Congressman Sanford Bishop. The two spoke at length about their childhood in the South, as she prepares to be a cultural ambassador in Colombia. (Submitted Photo)

THOMASVILLE — After years of hearing about her grandfather’s experience teaching in France through the Fulbright Grant, Amelia Rivers is carrying on his legacy. Rivers was recently awarded a federal grant, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship for Rionegro, Colombia.

The Fulbright is one of the oldest and most prestigious grants in the country. Founded by Senator William J. Fulbright in 1946, the grant facilitates cultural exchange between the United States and the world.

Rivers is uniquely qualified to serve as a cultural ambassador, as her childhood experiences took her across the United States, providing her with a diverse background and perspective.

Rivers was homeschooled as a child, but not in the traditional sense.

Her father was a pilot for Delta, so her mother drove her and her brother to his location, while they learned on the go.

“We would follow him all over the world,” Rivers said. “When we were in Costa Rica, my parents dropped me off at a Spanish-speaking elementary school.”

This was one of many, including the time Rivers taught her younger brother to count to 100 on the Great Wall of China.

“Ever since I was a kid, I was very lucky to have a lot of traveling experiences, and I think they got me ready to get a grant that would allow me to live in another country and speak a language that’s my second language,” she said. “It gave me a passion for cultural exchange. I love meeting new people and being in a new place.”

After her homeschooling experience, Rivers attended college, majoring in Music and English, with a focus on Music Research and Music Journalism. She continued her studies at Florida State University, receiving her Master’s in Musicology. While there, she focused her research on a genre of Colombian music known as Joropo.

This study prompted a trip to Colombia, where Rivers felt called to return.

When applying for the Fulbright Grant, she selected Columbia, hoping to continue to immerse herself in the culture, while teaching natives about the Southern way of life and teaching students English as a second language.

The opportunity to return to Colombia not only provides Rivers with a way to reconnect with the friends she met overseas, but it also helps her better understand her grandfather’s journey with Fulbright.

According to Rivers, her late grandfather, Joseph Robinson, lived in France in 1962 while on a Fulbright Grant.

“My mom would tell me all sorts of stories about him,” Rivers said. “In a weird way, applying for the Fulbright felt like a way of carrying on his legacy.”

As a Fulbright Grant recipient, Rivers will now move to Rionegro for 10 months, where she will teach English to adults at Universidad Catolica de Oriente and share narratives from the South.

“I won’t just be teaching English and checking grammar, but I’m also going to be sharing American culture, and Thomasville’s culture,” she said. “I love drawing comparisons for my students, so they can better understand the United States and I can understand Colombia.”

To prepare for this, Rivers met with Congressman Sanford Bishop recently.

“We talked extensively about our experiences growing up in the American South,” Rivers said. “He told me about what it was like to grow up in the segregated South in Alabama.”

Rivers was particularly intrigued by Bishop’s story about his time at Boy Scouts camp, where he pretended to be a Black Cuban. At the time, Black Cubans were treated better than African Americans.

“That narrative encompasses so many intricacies about racism in America and Latin America,” Rivers noted. “I really want to impart that on my students, when I teach them about racism and how people like Sanford Bishop can go through something like that, but also be a Congressman.”

Along with personal anecdotes, Rivers also held on to some advice from Bishop, as he told her, “The American South is what America can be.”

Rivers said she hopes to impart this on her students, showing them that a diverse region, such as the South with numerous races, religions, and ethnicities, can still triumph.

With her newfound wisdom, Rivers is excited to begin her journey. She will start teaching in early August and is praying for a sound mind and clarity in her work abroad.

She thanks the Thomasville community for their support in this longtime dream of hers, and specifically thanks Toscoga Marketplace for allowing her to work there while she pursued the grant and her Master’s.