2014 - Fulbright Student Program Blog

Learning to “Roll with It”: Working Through the Unpredictability of Research in a Another Country

December 29, 2014

Mitali Thakore, 2013-2014, India, taking in the sunset over the Rann of Kutch

As a Fulbright Study/Research grantee in public health in India, you are in one of the world’s largest public health labs. Of course, you will face challenges you never expected. But the opportunities are just as plentiful as the challenges, if you can learn to identify them.

About 25-50 percent of polio affected people are expected to experience Post Polio Syndrome (PPS), characterized by muscular weakness, atrophy, pain, and fatigue. Based in Gujarat, I aimed to understand the experiences of individuals with polio, to assess the medical and nonprofessional perception of PPS management, to evaluate social support for people with polio, and to increase awareness of PPS. This was a qualitative study in which I conducted semi-structured interviews with individuals with polio, medical practitioners, and lay people to assess their perceptions of disability, polio, and PPS.

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Fulbright in Motion U.S. Fulbright

Meet the 2015 Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors!

December 22, 2014

Back row, left to right: Bryan Furman, Senay Kahsay, Nathan Taylor, Amaka Cypriana Uzoh, Julie Baer, Megan Echols, Patrick Kramer, Joshua Martin, Derrell Acon, Allie D. Surina; Front row, left to right: Armaan Siddiqi, Ilana Robbins Gross, Aditya Voleti, Stephanie Herzog, Joanie Andruss, Tiffany Burd, Kristine Lin, Christina Aguila, Radhameris Gomez Gabriel (not pictured, Larena Nellies-Ortiz and Taylor Bernard)

On Wednesday, December 10, 21 newly selected Fulbright U.S. Student Program Alumni Ambassadors met in Washington, DC to receive training on how to promote and recruit for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Staff members from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the Institute of International Education (IIE), along with previous Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors, shared tips on giving an effective presentation and emphasized the unique, important role that Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors play in inspiring diverse students, Fulbright Program Advisers, college administrators – and anyone interested in the program – to learn more about it and the power of educational and cultural exchange.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Alumni Ambassador Program was established in 2008 to identify, train and engage a select group of approximately 15-25 Fulbright U.S. Student Program alumni to serve as representatives, recruiters and spokespersons for the Fulbright Program. They are selected annually through recommendations from Fulbright Commissions, U.S. Embassy staff, area managers, the Fulbright Student Program Outreach Division and approved by the Fulbright Program’s sponsor, ECA. Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors come from an array of different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, states, fields of study, institutions and have participated in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program in all world areas.

Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors represent the program’s rich diversity and play a key role in increasing knowledge about Fulbright opportunities. They provide testimonials about their Fulbright experiences at conferences and campus presentations, and offer application tips in written articles, webinars and at special events throughout the United States.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program relies on the Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors to share with potential applicants what the Fulbright experience is really like and how to successfully address the challenges of living abroad while meeting the Fulbright Program’s ultimate goal – to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

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U.S. Fulbright

Don’t Forget Us

December 19, 2014

Spencer Reece, 2012-2013, Honduras, with the girls from Our Little Roses Orphanage

I taught, ate, laughed, and wept with seventy-two orphaned girls for one year on the grounds of Our Little Roses, the only all-girl orphanage in Honduras, one of the poorest Spanish-speaking countries in the Western hemisphere and home to some 250,000 orphans. The Fulbright year I lived there, 24,000 orphans tried to cross the Rio Grande in search of their parents or in search of work or in search of both; the year I left the number more than doubled to 50,000.

I lived with the girls in San Pedro Sula, dubbed by most journalists as the murder capital of the world. Roughly three people a day are killed in San Pedro, most of it gang-related. Behind ten-foot walls and armed guards, I came, with the aid of a Fulbright grant in Creative Writing, to teach the girls how to write poems. The idea had come to me on a previous visit to the orphanage when one girl had said to me on my final night: “Don’t forget us.” She might have said that to everyone that passed through there. But with me, it stuck.

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Foreign Fulbright

Fun with Microscopic Living Creatures on Fulbright

December 11, 2014

Seanghuoy Ho, 2012-2014, Cambodia examining antibacterial compounds’ efficacy against the bacterial community known as “biofilm” in the laboratory at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

When I was a little girl, I once watched a science program on TV in which I saw people wearing long white coats and goggles, holding long, round tubes. The tubes contained cloudy solutions and the people were viewing these solutions under machines called microscopes. I learned from that TV show that those solutions contained bacteria and that they were living creatures. Bacteria come in different shapes and colors, and need food, oxygen and specific temperatures in order to survive. As a kid, I was excited to learn more about these tiny creatures, even though at that time, I had no clue as to why people would want to study them. I dreamed about becoming a scientist one day and conducting research on these wonderful, tiny living things.

Now, thanks to a Fulbright Foreign Student grant, I am a master’s degree student in microbiology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Since my childhood, I’ve learned a great deal about microbes, specifically bacteria. I realize that I mostly saw bacteria on TV when they caused an outbreak. The majority of bacteria, however, are harmless and even beneficial to human beings. Antibiotics, chemical compounds produced by particular bacteria and used to treat many diseases, are one typical example of their benefits.

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Fulbright in Motion U.S. Fulbright

Fulbright Program Advisers Attend Fall Development Initiative

December 8, 2014

Fulbright Program Advisers attending the fall initiative (left to right): Juan Arriata, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras; Alina Choo, Suffolk University; Karen Wachsmuth, University of Iowa; Anne Marsh, Bridgewater College; Stephen Mead, Saint Martin’s University; and Laura Clippard, Middle Tennessee State University (not pictured: Catherine Baxter, Central Methodist University, Shirley Eoff, Angelo State University, Timothy Nixon, Shepherd University, and Sara Otis, University of Hawaii at Manoa).

New York, New York:

Select Fulbright Program Advisers participated in workshops at the Institute of International Education (IIE) as part of the Fulbright Program Adviser (FPA) Development Initiative, a bi-annual event designed to help diversify which institutions participate in the Fulbright and other U.S. Department of State sponsored programs.

Each spring, approximately 10-15 institutions that have not recently been active or participated with the Fulbright Program are selected by competitive application in an effort to inform them of international exchange opportunities that they may not be aware of, and to assist them with developing their own “Fulbright culture” on their respective campuses.

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U.S. Fulbright

Notes on Norway

December 4, 2014

Paul Bostrom, 2012-2013, Norway, enjoying an early afternoon sunset in Norway’s arctic Tromsø

I thought of myself as an unconventional candidate for a Fulbright grant. After all, I was in my late twenties and only a part-time graduate student. But I thought of myself as curious person with a deep appreciation for travel – a hardworking student, with a genuine interest in better understanding my own Scandinavian heritage. As I’ve come to learn, there is no “conventional” Fulbright candidate.

My Fulbright application was designed around a “Capstone research project,” the final requirement of my graduate program. My study focused on the market effects of Norway’s energy rating scheme for buildings (read: energy efficiency report card for your home), and I was fortunate to have secured an affiliation with the University of Oslo’s Center for Development and the Environment. The Center has a strong reputation for its research – equally important; it has a long history of assembling international perspectives on pressing environmental issues.

I recall my first dinner at a colleague’s home, about three weeks into my stay. I arrived at a small apartment situated about 10 kilometers north of Oslo. It was a cool September evening, and dusk was just settling in over the city.

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