Stories spark the imagination of Purdue’s first Beinecke Scholar

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —

Junior Arden Woodall loves teaching, and she loves stories. Her own relationship with teaching and stories changed in an instant when she was selected as Purdue University’s first Beinecke Scholar. The prestigious national award provides significant financial support for graduate studies and will redirect her path from the high school classroom she imagined leading after graduation to a doctoral program in comparative literature. Her top choices are Duke, Yale and the University of Chicago. But first, she plans to apply for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, where she will use her Spanish minor to facilitate teaching English as a second language to native Spanish speakers.