Browsing Tag

Millennial Trains Project

Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

Hope Towards a Collaborative Future

September 6, 2016
MTP Change Journey participants -- 360 degree group photo.

MTP Change Journey participants — 360 degree group photo.

A few days ago I ended one of the best experiences that I had during my first year as a Fulbright Student. I participated in the Millennial Trains Project (MTP), a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel across the United States while developing a project about how museums engage with their communities.

The experience was so amazing that it’s impossible not to talk about for hours, but if I had to describe the trip in one word it would be “inspirational,” Why did I choose that word? Well I think that it describes the atmosphere that surrounded me during the entire journey.

During the trip I had the chance to meet marvelous young researchers that had similar questions about our society. We realized that despite our different cultural backgrounds we have similar goals in topics related to education, politics, civil rights, and community engagement, among others. Hearing their stories and being able to witness throughout the duration of the journey how they developed their projects to solve those problems, inspired me.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

A Need for Responsible Consumerism

August 26, 2016
Fulbright MTP participant from Germany, Desiree Garcia, right, on Millennial Train Change Journey 2016.

Fulbright MTP participant from Germany, Desiree Garcia, right, with fellow MTP participant, Leah Elizabeth Edwards, on Millennial Train Change Journey 2016.

Imagine walking around your city. All you see are evacuated stores falling apart, “for rent” signs dominating the view, yet knowing the chances for these spaces to be rented out are slim. Suddenly your memories take you back to a time when the stores were filled with people and all kinds of products. You remember how you, too, used to purchase your things here and you can still recall the smell and warmth of the stores, and the stories you were told by the store owners that were around for generations and knew the neighborhood and its people better than anyone. You find yourself smiling at that thought and then it hits you.

All this is no more. Main Street is dead.

Though I wished this was a fully fictional scene, I am sad to say that we are moving towards this quite quickly.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

Fulbright-MTP: Inspiration for Action

June 23, 2015
Fulbright-MTP participant Rodrigo Moran from El Salvador on board the Millennial Train.

Fulbright-MTP participant Rodrigo Moran from El Salvador on board the Millennial Trains Project

For some reason, I have not been able to sleep lately. Maybe I miss the coziness of my room on the train. Maybe I miss the rocking motion and the sounds of the wheels on the tracks that lulled me into a profound sleep every night. Maybe I just miss all of my MTP friends…

Check: All of the above.

Besides the nostalgia I have been feeling, I hit the ground running as soon as we got off the train in Washington, DC. I started a summer internship in the field of international development at Creative Associates International, a company “providing outstanding, on-the-ground development services and forging partnerships to deliver sustainable solutions to global challenges.”

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

Urban Farming Across America

May 29, 2015
Fulbright-MTP Train Participant Saja Al Quzweeni from Iraq, left, interviews

Fulbright-MTP Train Participant Saja Al Quzweeni from Iraq, left, interviews Skeets Rapier, the Director of Operations at The Renewable Republic, about his aquaponics, solarpowered organic farm. Photo by MTP Train’s Jenny Gottstein

My Fulbright-MTP project is surveying the best practices in urban agriculture across different American Cities. The anticipated outcome of this journey is to design a holistic model of urban farming that connects people with their land and each other. Urban agriculture will be utilized to offer not just food, but also a terrain in which people come together and build their community.

The project started in Los Angeles where I visited, Women Organizing Resources Knowledge Service or WORKS. The organization’s mission is to provide affordable housing with affordable food for lower-income communities,  and for people with disabilities and illnesses. My interview with Channa Grace, President of WORKS, inspired me as she used her personal experiences to leverage the status of the disadvantaged. WORKS also invites people to change their lives and adopt healthy eating habits through growing their own produce.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

Fulbright-MTP: Myth-busting in the American South

May 28, 2015
Fulbright-MTP Participant, Nhlalala Mavundza, from South Africa explores the San Antonio, Texas Riverwalk. May 25, 2015

Fulbright-MTP Participant, Nhlalala Mavundza, from South Africa explores the San Antonio, Texas Riverwalk. May 25, 2015

Throughout my time as a Fulbright Student, I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to interact with other Fulbright Students from around the world. Each time it is eye-opening and a learning experience to learn about places I’ve never seen, and people I’ve never met. Joining the Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project (MTP), I knew the experience would be similar and I would have an opportunity to learn about new places and different American cultures through the stories of the Millennials I would travel with by train.

When the trip began in Los Angeles, I experienced culture shock unlike the first one I experienced when I arrived in the United States in August 2013. I’ve been living in Ohio for the past two years, and it’s now my home. I compare everywhere I travel in the U.S. to Ohio and my home country, South Africa.

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Enrichment Foreign Fulbright Fulbright-Millennial Trains Project

“Learning About the World in a Journey Across America”

September 11, 2014

Fulbright-MTP participant Silvia Tijo, a Fulbright student from Colombia, reflects on the overall feel of the MTP cross-country U.S. journey. In addition to seeing the process of transforming waste into energy with the help of sunlight and algae for the first time in-person; a process she researches currently at Georgia Tech via a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant – Tijo says she learned more about the world and the necessary keys to becoming a global generational leader.

In the words of Silvia Tijo, a Fulbright student from Colombia:

The group of 20 Americans and five Fulbright Foreign Student MTP participants after a mentor session at Citizen University in Seattle. Submitted photo.

The group of 20 Americans and five Fulbright Foreign Student MTP participants after a mentor session at Citizen University in Seattle. Submitted photo.

While the Millennial Trains Project approached its last station in New York, all of us felt nostalgic since the trip was coming to an end. The group that started as strangers in Portland had become a family somewhere along the trip. During the final hours, Jenny Gottstein, who is from California, organized the production of a Lip sync video that involved all the passengers throughout the train even though many of us did not know the song lyrics; furthermore, there was no way to hear it because there was not any internet signal available as the train was in movement. What a great way to end the trip! Everybody worked on a shared goal.

At this point, I realized what the 20 participants from all regions of USA and five Fulbright Scholars from Yemen, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Colombia had in common. Besides being part of the same generation, we all want to use our leadership to create social impact. The travel experience on train was key for us to create such a connection.

The journey itself was a tour of geography of the United States, and the greatness of its landscape. Yet, the best part of the trip was to learn from the diversity of its people through the speakers, mentors, participants, and all the people that we met in each place. The train also surpassed borders, and we learned about people, customs, and points of view of other countries around the world. I became familiar with countries where I’ve never been, and I also learned more about my own country: Colombia.

We had between 2 or 3 hours to work on our individual projects in every city where we stopped. The return to the train after each visit was exciting because the experiences of others were shared with all of us. I was fortunate to see each city through the eyes of 24 other people, and I could see every place from never imagined perspectives. When the journey reached its final destination, many projects on the train began to intertwine just like the travelers on the train began to intertwine as a community. We learned to appreciate that we are different, but where differences are valued and commonalities are found, stronger ties are built.

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