Vienna Waits For You: Anjolina Horzynek '22 Prepares For Fulbright Adventure

Anjolina Horzynek ’22 comes by her interest in languages naturally.

Her father, Steven, is a first-generation U.S. citizen with family in Austria. Her mother, Dorine, is a third-generation citizen whose grandparents immigrated from Mexico.

So when Horzynek transferred to Pacific University in 2019 from Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles, Oregon, pursuing both German and Spanish not only made sense but provided a rigorous academic experience.

“I grew to enjoy the challenges of languages and the nuances of them, how everyone speaks their languages differently,” Horzynek said. “Linguistically, it’s very fascinating and very interesting to me. But I am also inspired by the ways in which language can inspire and change people.”

This fall, Horzynek will have a unique opportunity to put both languages to use. She will spend the next year in Vienna as one of four recipients of a Fulbright Community-Based Combined Grant Award, a Fulbright award specific to Austria. Horzynek departs for her year-long educational experience in September.

Raised in both The Dalles and Dufur, Oregon, and a graduate of Dufur High School, Horzynek is the 40th Fulbright student scholar from Pacific in the last 25 years according to statistics kept by Lorely French, Distinguished University Professor of German and Pacific’s advisor for the Fulbright program.

“Anjolina’s multicultural heritage, which includes both Spanish and German-speaking family members, has ingrained in her a love for languages and cultures,” French said. “That will certainly help her succeed in Vienna, which is known for its diversity.”

Since 1946, the Fulbright program has provided over 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad. A program of the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright program operates in 160 countries worldwide and is known for producing leaders, including multiple Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners and 41 heads of state or government. Teaching assistants in Pacific’s Department of World Languages & Cultures are typically Fulbright award recipients.

The unique award that Horzynek received focuses as much on community service as it does education. She will serve as a Fulbright teaching assistant, teaching English to high school students, and will also take classes at the University of Vienna.

Some of Horzynek’s experience will be with the Austrian Latin American Institute, an organization designed to support Vienna’s Latin American population. She expects to work at least 10 hours per week at the institute, which hosts cultural events and provides German, Spanish, and Portuguese language classes and workshops.

 “I will be there to be an extra pair of hands and provide support for the events and research projects they are doing,” she said. “I will do whatever they need help with and do anything I can to support Latin American people that call Vienna their home.”

It is the perfect intersection of academic interests for Horzynek, who majored in politics and government at Pacific while minoring in both Spanish and German with the goal of a career in education.

While it was political science and languages that helped Horzynek find her purpose, it was the opportunity students have to lead in a world that needs people to think, care, create and pursue justice that drew her to Forest Grove. “I liked all of the student leadership opportunities that Pacific has and the opportunity to find community,” she said. “I have found incredible people here in my friends, my professors and staff members.”

Since graduating in 2022, Horzynek has worked in several roles on Pacific’s Forest Grove Campus in the Office of Student Affairs; Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; Office of Student Engagement; and the Master of Nonprofit Leadership program. She has also worked as a substitute teacher for Edison High School in Portland, a school specializing in educating students with learning differences.

Horzynek will be far from home but far from alone. She has visited cousins who live in Vienna each of the last two summers and is looking forward to spending more time with them. For her Fulbright year, she will rent an apartment owned by one of those cousins.

The significance of a Fulbright award is not lost on Horzynek. Her hometown of Dufur, located 19 miles south of The Dalles in rural Wasco County, has a population of 604 people. Her graduating class at Dufur High School in 2017 was just 26. The Fulbright program, meanwhile, funds just over 2,000 awards annually for U.S. students.

“Where I am from, people don’t get stuff like this,” Horzynek said. “They don’t apply for it, and they don’t receive it. I am really proud to have received something like this. I hope to share this with some of the kids that are growing up in my town and hopefully inspire them and show them that it can be done.” 

While Horzynek hopes that the Fulbright experience will provide guidance on her future career direction, she is looking forward more to the educational opportunities that living abroad will provide.

“I’m excited to travel,” she said. “I’m excited to meet new people, have new journeys and explore new places. I’m excited to learn about the lived experiences of the other people I meet. And I am excited to meet the students in Austria. I want to teach them about the United States and all of the cultures that we have here.”