Lydia Chenoweth
Lydia currently works as Hungary Foundation’s Summer 2026 Communications Intern. She recently graduated summa cum laude from Hillsdale College, where she studied French and History. While a student there she served as President of Hillsdale’s chapter of the National French Honor Society Pi Delta Phi as well as Director of Academics for the Michigan Alpha Chapter of the international women’s fraternity Pi Beta Phi. She earned several awards from Hillsdale’s French department, including the Cécile Frazier Smith Award for excellence in French and the Cécile Frazier Smith Scholarship to study in France. Lydia will pursue a Master’s in French Language, Literature and Culture at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest this fall.
During her time at Hillsdale, Lydia participated in two month-long French study abroad programs: the first in June 2023 in Tours, France, and the second in June 2024 in Grenoble through the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS). She received C1 (Advanced) and C2 (Mastery) rankings from these programs. Since graduating, she has had the opportunity to expand her career experiences through a 2-month internship at the Otto von Habsburg Foundation in Budapest as well as an English teaching assistant position at a high school in Strasbourg, France through the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). TEFL certified and with hands-on classroom experience abroad, Lydia plans to bring her passion for language education back to the United States, where she hopes to teach French at the high school level.
Outside of her academic and professional pursuits, Lydia is a dedicated martial artist. She trained in taekwondo for eleven years at Jhoon Rhee Taekwondo in Arlington, Virginia, earning the rank of 2nd degree black belt. Beginning in 2020, she began sharing her expertise as an assistant instructor teaching students of all belt ranks and ages. She also spent six years volunteering through Jhoon Rhee’s Adaptive Taekwondo Program (ATKD), working with children with special needs.
“Effective teaching demands strong communication and presentation skills, organization, and the ability to connect with people — and this internship is a wonderful opportunity to sharpen all of those. I am thrilled to merge my desire to grow professionally with my ever-growing interest in Hungarian-American relations. After all, the best kind of teacher is one who is still a student, and I am always looking for new things to learn and share with others.” – Lydia Chenoweth