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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

Change Participants

August 8, 2016
Yanoa

Yanoa Carrasco, 2015-2017, Peru, in front of one of the Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen “Shuttlecocks” sculptures at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri

Greetings from the 2016 Millennial Trains Project (MTP). You may be wondering what MTP is. Well, let me explain. It’s a train journey across the United States for a diverse group of young leaders and innovators. Thanks to the Fulbright Program, I am having a great trip experience and making new friends: millennials from different parts of the United States and two other Fulbright Foreign Students, one from Germany and the other from Malaysia.

I’m currently doing a master’s degree in museum studies at New York University, so when I learned about the MTP, I decided to apply to conduct research about community engagement in museums. Through my project, I want to create an awareness of the importance of collecting, preserving and interpreting local and/or regional history. One of the best ways to do this is to involve a local community and create engaging activities that will allow them to discover and interpret the world around them. Institutions like museums and cultural centers are currently evolving into spaces of knowledge and personal reflection; places where communities can go and discuss specific topics while creating their own narratives about them.

The goal of my MTP journey is to explore different participatory and engaging experiences offered by museums in order to spread the word about those activities and inspire others to create similar programs all around the world.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

Meet the Fulbright Millennial Trains Project Participants

July 21, 2016

The U.S. Department of State has selected the following six Fulbright Foreign Students to participate in the fourth Millennial Trains Project (MTP) installment across the United States as a special enrichment component of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program. This year the six Fulbrighters will be split between two MTP journeys, Change and Unity, joining 44 American Millennial riders who will traverse the country gaining  a deeper understanding of life in the United States and social entrepreneurship. The special enrichment activity will give participants an opportunity to explore a research topic of their choice in-depth,  and strengthen their leadership and communication skills.

Throughout the two journeys, participants will be sharing their experiences through social media using #MTPtrain and #Fulbright and here on this blog. Follow along in real time!

CHANGE // AUGUST 1 – 7

PITTSBURGH >> CHICAGO >> KANSAS CITY >> ALBUQUERQUE >> LOS ANGELES

Desiree_Barao_Garcia_resize

Desirée Barao Garcia is a Fulbright Student from Germany.

DESIRÉE BARAO GARCIA

Germany // Enhancing Small Businesses’ Performances

Desirée received her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering at the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany and is now completing a master’s of science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia University in New York as a Fulbright Student. Her previous work experience includes various industries (automobile, logistics, consulting, steel, fashion, etc.) and companies of different sizes (from 3 to 35K+). She is currently the president of GradSWE and a Global Guide for One-to-World’s Global Classroom Project.

Desirée’s MTP project will research challenges facing small businesses to find national and international similarities so that small businesses around the world can learn from each other’s mistakes and successes and adjust accordingly. She will meet with small business owners across the United States to find out how they are performing, what challenges they face, and conduct research on what those businesses can do to perform better and stay in business long-term.

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U.S. Fulbright

From Two to Infinity: What the Second Detection of Gravitational Waves Tells Us About the Future

July 20, 2016
Daniel Hoak

Daniel Hoak, 2015-2016, Italy, visiting Florence

Last month, scientists in the LIGO and Virgo scientific collaborations announced the second direct detection of gravitational waves, from the orbit and merger of a pair of black holes. The event, named GW151226, arrived in the early morning on the day after Christmas, and has been nicknamed the “Boxing Day event” by the collaborations. With a second event in hand, gravitational wave science has moved beyond the era of sensational first detection, and is evolving into a reliable tool for astronomy and physics.

I recently finished my Fulbright year working at the Virgo gravitational wave observatory outside of Pisa, Italy. The last time Virgo listened for gravitational wave was in 2011, and since then, the instrument has been off-line for a complete upgrade.

At Virgo, I’m part of the team of scientists who are putting the final touches on the upgrade. To borrow a phrase from James Merrill, our job is to make wholeness out of hodgepodge: we’re creating a functional detector from the precision equipment that has been designed and built over the last five years. We plan to have the detector on-line this winter, in time to join the two LIGO observatories in the United States as they listen for gravitational waves.

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U.S. Fulbright

Home Sweet Home

June 22, 2016
Mikayla Posey

Mikayla Posey, 2015-2016, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany and Reach the World Traveler (left), with a friend

In partnership with Reach the World (RTW), the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is publishing a series of articles written by Fulbright English Teaching Assistants participating in Reach the World’s Traveler correspondents program, which through its interactive website, enriches the curriculum of elementary and secondary classrooms (primarily located in New York City but also nationwide) by connecting them to the experiences of volunteer Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) and other world travelers who are currently studying and living abroad. 

Where do you consider your home? What are important parts of your home? Can your home change? When I was a kid, I had very clear answers to these questions. My home was 760 Crestwood. It was the brick house with a pine tree out front, my room inside with my stuffed animals and the people who lived there—my family! However, over time my understanding of my “home” changed. First, it changed when my parents divorced and then I had two homes and eventually two great families. It also changed when I decided to go to university over 1,000 miles away from Arizona. But even when my address changed and new people surrounded me, I always felt at home because I always had a community. What is a community? It can mean lots of things, but for me it means being surrounded by people who truly care about you, whether family, friends, teachers, coworkers or roommates.

Until I moved to Germany on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, my community always sprung from either my family or my school.  However, when I arrived in Germany, I felt for the first time that I was very alone. I did not know anyone my city, all my coworkers seemed to already have their own friends and, on top of that, I was having a hard time speaking German. It’s much harder to make friends when you are not comfortable speaking their language!

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U.S. Fulbright

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

May 2, 2016
Kara Witherill-1

Kara Witherill, 2015-2016, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany and Reach the World Traveler

In partnership with Reach the World (RTW), the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is publishing a series of articles written by Fulbright English Teaching Assistants participating in Reach the World’s Traveler correspondents program, which through its interactive website, enriches the curriculum of elementary and secondary classrooms (primarily located in New York City but also nationwide) by connecting them to the experiences of volunteer Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) and other world travelers who are currently studying and living abroad. 

One thing that never changes, no matter where you are in the world, is how fast time goes by. It was almost exactly a year ago that I found out I had won a Fulbright U.S. Student grant and would be spending this year in Germany teaching English. Now, as I look forward, it’s hard to believe I only have four more months left in Germany and that this is my last journal entry for Reach the World. However, thinking about the passage of time brings me to one of the most important pieces of advice I can give to someone planning on pursuing a Fulbright grant: take it one day at a time.

I cannot emphasize this point enough. When I realized I was going to be leaving behind everything I knew and embarking on this journey in a foreign country, I was very excited, but I was also terrified. Thinking about moving to a foreign country for a year, especially one that speaks a different language is scary. When you think about the fact that you won’t see your friends or family for months, it can be sad. When you think about trying to find a place to live, navigating a new lifestyle and making new friends, it can be daunting. However, I’ve learned that instead of thinking about all those things at once and totally freaking myself out, I need to think about these things one day at a time.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright

2016 Philadelphia Foreign Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

March 10, 2016

From March 3-6, 2016, Fulbrighters took to the “City of Brotherly Love,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to participate in the 2016 Enrichment Seminar, “Democracy in Action: U.S. Politics and Elections.” Joining the more than 130 students over the course of local cultural site visits, community service activities, and a presidential election simulation workshop included accomplished political commentators, strategists, and academics.

Held at the Independence Visitor’s Center, the opening dinner welcomed CNN’s Michael A. Smerconish to deliver a phenomenal keynote address, “Stuck in the Middle with You: How Did We Get Where We Are (Politically) and What Will It Take to Get Out.” Smerconish, who is the author of two New York Times’ best sellers, analyzed the current fraught U.S. political climate heading into the 2016 general election in November, and even offered an apt comparison between the U.S. two-party system, voter preferences, and citizens’ proclivity to shop at specific grocery stores based on location.

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