“As an educator, I’m trying to make the most of the experience and kind of connect it to my work with Swearer — trying to be more mutually cooperative and make it beneficial for both parties,” she said.

A part of that, she said, is increasing access to music education. Chen was a double bassist in the Brown University Orchestra — and served as president in 2019-20 — and believes deeply in the transformative power of playing classical music, but acknowledges that the paywall to enter that world is quite high. As part of the community engagement project Chen will develop for her Fulbright fellowship, she aims to work with either a school of nonprofit that provides free or low-fee music lessons for low-income students.

She hopes to draw on that rich experience in community engagement and development to support students at ROC van Amsterdam, the largest vocational college in the Netherlands.

Her class will primarily be composed of students ranging in age from 16 to 22 who are actively seeking work in hospitality — a perfect match, Chen said, because her family owns a restaurant and she’s no stranger to the industry.

The students will all have varying levels of English fluency, but Chen is particularly interested in working one-on-one with refugee and immigrant students in the class who may be trying to learn both English and Dutch as they pursue training.

She knows firsthand the kinds of barriers people of color can encounter when furthering their education and careers, and how important it is to be able to work in a mentorship capacity with people dedicated to helping them succeed; in fact, Chen credits her fellowship adviser with both thoroughly preparing her for every step of the Fulbright process and allowing her to present her “true self” through the application.

“The Fulbright can be very daunting to approach, especially for people who identify as first-generation, low-income or a person of color,” she said. “But people like myself can make it and can do it… there is hope.”