Amazing student Zakiyya Ellington

Foundation Fellow Zakiyya Ellington came to UGA, in part for the big sports atmosphere—and in part for the travel associated with her fellowship. She’s studied at Oxford, and traveled to Tanzania, Morocco, Spain, France and Costa Rica. Still one of her favorite UGA experiences was playing women’s club rugby, which taught her to be fearless. In describing her study abroad experiences, Ellington said:

After freshman year, I completed a Maymester at Oxford with other Fellows, during which time I took a course in environmental economics. Although it was one of the more difficult courses I have taken, I also learned a great deal in such a short period of time. I found that our study of welfare economics, particularly as it pertains to distributive justice, informed some of my understanding of how states and governments think about economic distribution and justice, a subject about which I care deeply. We traveled throughout the U.K. and spent time exploring London, Cornwall, Glastonbury and other areas. I also traveled to Croatia with a few other Fellows during a short break.

Following the Maymester, I backpacked around Europe for about 10 days with other Fellows. I then went to Morocco, where I completed an intensive summer program and fall semester studying Arabic. I strongly believe that immersion is one of the best ways to improve in a language. During the summer, I studied Arabic for seven to eight hours each day, which solidified my foundation of the language. During the fall semester, I focused more on content courses such as Media and Sufism, as well as the Moroccan dialect. I took a language pledge to only speak Arabic during the entire semester and significantly advanced my language proficiency.

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An intrepid young scholar, Ellington inspires us with the best of UGA – its global perspective, utilizing the language skills to make the most of her thirst for knowledge.