Oct. 28, 2011

Teresa Welch, daughter of Jim and Michelle Welch, of Springfield, is the recipient of the Dr. Frank Byrne and Julia Coll Scholarship at Shawnee State University.

The scholarship will help her with her expenses as an exchange student at the Universitat Juame I in Castello de la Plana, Spain, during spring semester. Welch is a middle school education major at Shawnee State.

Byrne, retired linguistics professor, started the exchange program at SSU with the first students participating in 1998. He and his wife, Coll, started the scholarship fund for one exchange student in the spring semester and one student in the fall semester.

As an exchange student, Welch does not receive any funds to help her on the trip. Universitat Jaume I is a public higher education and research university, created in 1991 offering 31 degree programs.

"I really appreciate receiving the scholarship to help me with this great opportunity to go to another country to learn," she said. "I want to be able to use this experience when I become a teacher to broaden the minds of my students."

Welch hopes to travel throughout Spain, Italy and France during her time in Europe. She lived in Germany when she was little and has traveled to Peru and Guatemala on mission trips.

"I have had five years of Spanish and I can read it fairly well," Welch said. "The most exciting thing about going is experiencing another country's history and culture and learning the language."