Yearly Archives:

2013

FLTA

The Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Experience: “Showing” Your Culture and More

July 25, 2013
Juliano Saccomani, 2012-2013, Fulbright FLTA from Brazil (center), participating in the Latin American Festival in Athens, Georgia

Juliano Saccomani, 2012-2013, Fulbright FLTA from Brazil (center), participating in the Latin American Festival in Athens, Georgia

Receiving a Fulbright grant is a very large honor that comes with responsibilities, one of which  is promoting mutual understanding. I received a Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship (FLTA) grant, which means I was a Portuguese language teaching assistant at the University of Georgia from July 2012 to May 2013.

Brazilians are all over the world (you might have seen one already!) and we love to share our culture with others. Can you imagine how exciting it was to be able to do that as part of your job? From discussing small things such as eating pizza with silverware, to talking about Carnaval, or even the dark days of Brazil’s dictatorship,  my Fulbright FLTA grant required a great deal of research for me to effectively share what being a Brazilian is all about. Believe it or not, I actually learned more about my country and myself by doing so!

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U.S. Fulbright

Building Bridges of Understanding from Long Island to Sicily

July 17, 2013
Jared Finkelstein

Jared Finkelstein, 2010-2011, looking up at the Oculus at the Pantheon in Rome

I had never heard of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program until three months before I applied. In the summer of 2009, I knew I would graduate from college in just a few short months, and was still considering options for the future. Then, I received a letter in the mail from my university about an opportunity to travel to a different country and learn about its culture while conducting research.

I contacted my school’s Fulbright Program Adviser and discovered a grant in Italy specifically for engineering graduate study at the Politecnico di Torino. I had always had an interest in Italian culture, and had studied the language in high school. While putting my application together, with the help of my Fulbright Program Adviser and some other members of the faculty, I contacted the Politecnico di Torino describing my desire to study with them. Politecnico then gave me details on the coursework they offered and how to apply. The application took a lot of time – it’s not something you can do in one sitting. I spent a great deal of time researching the school and Turin, Italy, before writing and meticulously tweaking my essays.

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U.S. Fulbright

A Recipe for a Life-Changing Experience

July 16, 2013
Mike Stanton

Mike Stanton, 2005-2006, Senegal (left), playing the Tama drum at a traditional town music celebration in Dakar with members of the Diouck family

I decided to apply for a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant as an At-Large candidate (not enrolled at the time of application) because after I received my bachelor’s degree, I was interested in possibly attending graduate school in psychology and was not certain which type of degree suited my needs best. Working with a professor I had known since my undergraduate study abroad experience in Senegal, I was able to find my Fulbright affiliation and mentor, Dr. Myayang Niang – a professor, NGO director, medical doctor, and scientist.

During my Fulbright year in Senegal, I found that volunteering and engaging in community work were as important to my professional development as my psychological research. I worked with volunteers to build a cyber-café for medical students at Dakar University, mentored homeless children at a shelter, provided care to villagers in a remote health clinic, and taught American History and English classes to high school students at U.S. Department of State-sponsored events in Dakar.

For my Fulbright research, I used World Health Organization questionnaires to examine how stress may be associated with psychological/physical distress and how it can vary depending upon rural and urban settings in Senegal. Once back in the United States, this research ended up providing me with the impetus to apply to Ph.D. programs focusing on multicultural psychology and medicine. Currently, I am in my last year of a clinical psychology and behavioral medicine Ph.D. program at Duke University, and am a behavioral medicine intern within the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

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U.S. Fulbright

Spectrums of Development: Developmental Disabilities and Mutual Understanding in China

July 3, 2013
Rachel Reetzke

Rachel Reetzke, 2011-2012, China, works with a father and son at the YangAi Parent Club for families of children with developmental disabilities

The impetus for me to begin my Fulbright U.S. Student Program application came during the summer of 2010, as a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholar. That summer, I tested my intermediate Mandarin skills by independently organizing a month-long service project at Beijing Stars and Rain Autism Education and Research Center. Through volunteer work at Stars and Rain, I was exposed to a new method of parent training, which provided insight into the diagnosis, and treatment intervention methods for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in China. Ultimately, the experience revealed to me a dire need for evidence-based practice (EBP) research in the field. I aimed to return to China as a Fulbright student to further explore and develop my place within the networks of doctors, teachers, students, and clinicians serving individuals with ASD in China.

As a Fulbrighter, I became part of an interdisciplinary research team and contributed to the validation of the Chinese Autism Diagnostic Scale (CADS). Currently, there is no autism diagnostic scale based on Chinese linguistic and cultural differences. Therefore, once published, CADS will be a vital tool for current and future diagnosis of ASD in China.

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Foreign Fulbright

Communities and Rivers in the State Named After the “Great River”

June 27, 2013
Guisy

Giusy Pappalardo, 2012-2013, Italy, standing along the Pascagoula River, the largest (by volume) unimpeded river system within the 48 contiguous United States

In a local farmers market, colorful t-shirts hang from hooks proudly proclaiming, in the words of William Faulkner, “To understand the world, you have to understand a place like Mississippi.” As a Fulbright Foreign Student from Italy studying at Mississippi State University’s (MSU’s) Department of Landscape Architecture, I have witnessed the meaning of this sentence first hand.

I’ve spent 10 months in the Deep South, traveling in an old Jeep which I obtained from another international student before he returned to India. “The car will be happy with you,” he announced when he handed me the keys. He was just one of the countless international friends I met on MSU’s campus. In our scented kitchens where we’ve shared tasty food and long conversations, I’ve learned about diverse cultures and made new connections.

Thanks to the car I inherited, it was easy to start my fieldwork. My Fulbright research has focused on the characteristics of interactions between human communities and rivers. I’m from the Italian island of Sicily, where I conducted Participatory Action Research with a network of grassroots NGOs that are trying to save the Simeto River, an important river in Sicily. The similarities between the Mississippi and the Simeto rivers are not based on physical characteristics. Rather, they are based on shared meanings and benefits which rivers can offer to the communities through which they flow throughout the world. My Fulbright grant has given me the opportunity to collect stories about other rivers narrated by their inhabitants. I’ve also explored some case studies with interviewees in which I’ve showed them a short video about the Simeto River in order to create a shared communality. After returning to Sicily, I will share these Mississippi-based stories with my home community through yet another video, further bridging the distance between Italy and the United States.

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