Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Shastia Azulay and I am a Fubright English

Teaching Assistant (ETA) in the 2023-2024 South Korea cohort.

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I will update this section more when I have the time, but here's the gist:

My two greatest loves are languages and sustainability.

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Languages:

I love learning languages so much and am so fascinated by the intricacies and details of grammar, vocabulary, and etymology.

I know five languages and hope to learn more! In order of fluency: English, Korean, Russian, Spanish, French. Right now I am focusing on my Korean language skills (relevant to living in Korea, ha).

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My family is quite international and have moved around a bit. My family and I moved to Astana, Kazakhstan in 2012 and we lived there for two years. That's when I began studying Russian, and when my interest in Korean began. We moved back to the states in 2015, then moved to New Delhi, India in 2017, where I graduated high school. I enrolled in Smith College and graduated in 2023 with a major in Russian Area Studies and a minor in Psychology. College is when I was really able to delve into formally learning Korean. At the time of writing this (December, 2023) I have had three years

of formal study of Korean language. I also had the opportunity to study abroad at Ewha Women's University for a month in Seoul. One

of my main personal goals for my Fulbright grant is to really delve into my Korean language study/practice and ideally achieve some level of

fluency.
 

Sustainability:

I have always had a passion for environmental subjects but only recently discovered my niche in the field. While working jobs in dining and

catering at Smith College,  I discovered a passion for systemic food waste reduction and its surprisingly significant impact on emissions/global warming. In 2021 I founded Smith Food Rescue Network (SFR, or FRN) and partnered with Manna Community Kitchen to bridge the gap between the surplus in dining halls and the rampant food insecurity in downtown Northampton (the city where Smith is located). I worked with college administration to institutionalize my program and even though I have graduated, my program is still going strong, managed by a full-time Americorps position. Since its inception, SFR has redirected over 20,000 pounds (nearly nine tons!) of surplus food into free meals, and we're only getting started!

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My long-term career goals involve working in the non-profit sector to reduce food waste and fight food insecurity. I have interned at Food Rescue US-DC and Big Reuse and hope to return to the field after my wonderful time  with Fulbright.