NSLI-Y alumna Annalise stands with her five host siblings in South Korea
Annalise with her NSLI-Y host family

Originally from a small town in rural Idaho, Annalise was interested in finding ways to expand her worldview. She established a friendship with a pen pal in South Korea which has lasted over a decade, and applied to the NSLI-Y program to learn the Korean language, share about Idaho with the world, and prepare for a future global career.​

After completing her NSLI-Y summer program, Annalise continued studying Korean. She participated in the Critical Language Scholarship for Korean in 2019 and returned to rural South Korea as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in 2021. Annalise is grateful for the opportunities these State Department programs have offered to support of her language development. ​

Annalise also credits NSLI-Y with helping her develop a strong sense of adaptability, which she has found useful in many situations, whether adapting to her small-town placement for Fulbright or a new organizational culture as she changes jobs.​

Annalise attended Rutgers for undergraduate degrees in public policy and Korean. After Fulbright, Analise returned to the United States to work as a legal assistant at the Department of Justice for a year, before becoming the manager of Georgetown University’s Asian Studies and Global Human Development programs. While working at Georgetown, she completed her MA in International Business and Policy. After graduation, Annalise began to work as a consultant for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency focusing on Indo-Pacific stakeholder engagement. She manages partnerships between stakeholders, collaborates across countries, and synthesizes complex information on cybersecurity and technology topics. ​

Annalise stands with another young woman on the streets of Busan, South Korea. Both are wearing traditional white dresses.
Annalise with her pen pal in Busan, South Korea