Los Gatos Fulbright scholar has always loved learning

By Michele Tjin

Article Launched: 05/02/2007 01:04:56 PM PDT on Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Kerner will spend the next school year in Madrid researching the art produced in Chueca, Madrid's gay neighborhood. Specifically, she'd like to see how artistic subject and technique relate to the integration of a gay community. Chueca has been considered a success story in the advancement of gay rights in Spain.

"I'm excited for the project," Kerner said. "It's going to be an interview-based approach. I have contacts with professors and important gay organizations, and I want to devise some interviews with artists."

Kerner, 22, graduated from Hillbrook School in 1998 and went on to St. Francis High School and Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2006. For the past seven months, she has been working as an au pair in Germany, taking care of a 6-year-old boy. Her interest in history and a desire to practice a new language drew her to Berlin, where she will stay through the summer.

"I came here on my own," Kerner said. "I've been hesitant to get connected with an American group, but I do seek out other German-language students."

Her impending research may seem like heady material, but it's a combination of several of her passions. She always had an interest in art, she said. Kerner studied art's theoretical aspect in college, and as a testament to her thirst for knowledge, while she was at Brown she enrolled in an oil painting class at the Rhode Island School of Design to get an appreciation of doing art while studying it.

Kerner picked up her fluency in Spanish by spending her summers volunteering with the Amigos de las Americas program, which blends service projects with youth leadership opportunities. Kerner built latrines in Nicaragua, participated in a rabies vaccination project in Bolivia, and served as a project supervisor in Mexico. She oversaw 10 teens in an undertaking to develop community museums in rural Mexican towns. These experiences with Amigos were a pivotal point in her life, Kerner said.

"It's very empowering," she said. "You can see earlier how much you can do. You increase your courage to do something with more and more significant results."

Her mother, Margaret Laliberte, recalled how during her daughter's first Amigos summer in high school, Kerner made a conscious choice not to call or e-mail her parents.

"She wanted to have this experience and know that she could be independent," Laliberte said.

Laliberte, who works as a child and family therapist, said her daughter fits the profile of a Fulbright candidate: Kerner has always loved school and explored her diverse interests.

"She's a good role model for young people her age for how they can contribute," Laliberte said. "It's not enough to be bright and talented. You need some other spark."

News of Kerner's Fulbright grant has reached her friends and former teachers, and no one seems surprised. Hillbrook teachers say that even when she was young, she exhibited a drive to learn and went beyond the homework assignments. Her sixth-grade teacher, Jimmye Mollin, recalled that she learned quickly, while Sharon Gies, her former history teacher, said she stood out in other ways.

"I'll never forget that one of the most important things about her is that she's truly nice all around," Gies said. "That says a lot about a person."

The two chat and catch up whenever Kerner returns to Los Gatos. Gies still lives in Kerner's neighborhood.

Carol Barmeier, a past president of the local Amigos chapter, said Kerner deserves the Fulbright scholarship. She has already proved she possesses the intellectual curiosity required for research and the ability to live independently in a new land, said Barmeier, who became a family friend after Kerner's first summer with Amigos.

Kerner is not certain yet what the future holds after her Fulbright year. It may include teaching or working in architecture, but for sure it will include learning another language, this time one with a different alphabet. Friends and family are confident that she will have a fruitful year in Spain, and she is looking forward to a new challenge.

"It is a pioneering project, but there has been work done on the development of Chueca," Kerner said. "I'm very excited just to meet everybody and talk to people I've been in touch with."