Yearly Archives:

2014

Foreign Fulbright

Spreading Love on the Green

June 4, 2014
Hyacinthe Nare, 2013-2015, Burkina Faso

Hyacinthe Nare, 2013-2015, Burkina Faso (left), volunteering with Spread the Love on the New Haven Green

I still happily recall the day I became a Fulbright Foreign Student, an opportunity which has allowed me to share my culture and background while benefiting from exposure to people from different nations. As a grantee from Burkina Faso, I am currently pursuing the environmental management program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. I am majoring in climate change, adaptation, and mitigation, and my interests include climate change and the quest for clean energy, particularly in developing countries.

When I arrived in the United States, I could not wait to become active in the Yale community. The school of forestry and environmental studies offers a unique three-week training module at Yale’s Myers and Great Mountain Forests and in New Haven’s urban areas. For this program, I worked with a group to perform field exercises, took measurements in forests, sampled species in ecosystems, and used orientation tools. I also shared my culture and experience outside classroom activities by working with the breakfast clean-up crews and participating in team sports, while learning from others. For the first time in my life, I played softball and scored a run, but I wish I hadn’t. Not knowing the rules, I only realized my achievement when applause and cheers followed!

What I remember most about the training is the classroom debate and some of the ideas generated by students which revealed how issues can be analyzed from several angles based on different cultural perspectives. As a student in the Master of Environmental Management Program, I actively participate in class projects and witness how students from all corners of the globe work together and roll up their sleeves to address global challenges such as climate change.

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Foreign Fulbright Fulbright in Motion U.S. Fulbright

Fulbright Program in Motion

June 2, 2014

Here is our first “Fulbright in Motion” weekly recap blog post! To highlight your Fulbright activities in next week’s recap tweet using #Fulbrightinmotion or e-mail Jennifer Connor, Fulbright Social Media Program Officer, at jconnor@iie.org.

Where was Fulbright last week?

San Diego, California:

Representatives of the Fulbright Program, including both the U.S. Student and Scholar Programs, attended the Association of International Educators’ (NAFSA) annual conference in San Diego.

NAFSA14

Check out more photos of Fulbright alumni and international exchange partners who attended #NAFSA14!

Miami, Florida:

Fulbright Program staff member Lee Rivers, along with Fulbrigth Alumni Ambassador Sam Gordon Gilman Alumni Ambassador Silvina Di Pietro, presented on Fulbright and Gilman opportunities to The Posse Foundation scholars and at the University of Miami.

Posse Miami

The Posse Foundation is a non-profit organization that identifies, recruits and trains public high school students with outstanding academic and leadership potential — many of them who have been overlooked in traditional college selection processes — and then arranges for full-tuition scholarships for four years at college. Since 1989, some 5,540 public high school students have been through the Posse program and 90 percent of them graduate from college. In 2010, President Obama named the foundation as one of 10 to receive a portion — $125,000 — of the $1.4 million he won with his Nobel Peace Prize. Many Posse Foundation scholars have gone on to receive Fulbright and Gilman grants and scholarships.

Seattle, Washington:

The U.S. Department of State, through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), welcomed 75 first-year Fulbright foreign students form 42 countries to Seattle for the Lab to Market seminar focused on exploring solutions to challenges facing global energy and the environment. The seminar included discussions with experts, visits to industry-leading companies and research institutions, and interactive workshops.

 

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Maya Angelou.

Dr. Maya Angelou, a beloved American poet, author, actor, and Civil Rights activist, has died at the age of 86. She became a member of our #ExchangeAlumni community following her #Fulbright 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer grant in 1986, during which she lectured in Liberia.

maya angelou

Dr. Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “And Still I Rise”, was a Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. At President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration ceremony, she read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning.” She was the second poet to present at a presidential inauguration; her recording of the poem later won a Grammy in the “Best Spoken Word” category. You can watch a clip of that momentous occasion here: http://goo.gl/Usd6Go

She was awarded the Presidential Medal for the Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. In 2010, pictured here, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama http://goo.gl/hvt1NS

Through her illustrious career, life, and legacy, she inspires our passion for lifelong education and the arts.

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U.S. Fulbright

Extraordinary Opportunity for a Non-traditional Student: One Family’s Fulbright to Mexico

May 21, 2014
Esther Francis

Fulbright U.S. Student Esther Francis with her daughter Matayah after performing a traditional Veracruz dance for Mother’s Day at Alberto Correa, a public elementary school in Mexico City

I dare say I’m not the typical Fulbright U.S. Student. I started taking college classes early—at age 14—and finally finished almost 13 years later. As a non-traditional student and single mother, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program afforded me opportunities that may have otherwise been beyond my reach, or would have perhaps taken another thirteen years to achieve. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

My Fulbright year was my second time living and studying in Mexico. My daughter and son, then ages four and seven, accompanied me while studying Spanish in Guanajuato as a Gilman recipient. When I returned to Park University after my Gilman, the Fulbright Program Adviser at my university immediately picked up on my interest in pursuing further overseas studies. She told me about Fulbright and walked me through the different types of grants. I knew immediately that the Fulbright Binational Business Internship in Mexico was my ticket. She told me the first Park student to receive a Fulbright grant was another non-traditional student who was just finishing up her own grant. Coincidentally, I knew her and had grown up with her daughter. “If she can do it,” I thought, “so can I.”

I received my Fulbright placement as a Human Resources Analyst for the United Nations Association in Mexico (AMNU). Deport-es para Compartir (Sports for Sharing), AMNU’s flagship program, is a program which aims to form better citizens from childhood by encouraging children to participate in their community and to act as change agents on the local level. I coordinated recruitment processes, redesigned the employee performance evaluation, and drafted the department’s first Policies and Procedures Manual. Each task required extensive collaboration with program staff and I had to adapt to a new culture both personally and professionally. Those times when I joined the operations team in the field working directly with children and education staff were particularly rewarding. The grant also included graduate courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, which supplemented my educational and cultural experiences.

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U.S. Fulbright

May You Have the Courage to Fall Down and Get Back Up

May 7, 2014
Talya

Talya Lieberman, 2012-2013, Latvia (right), and her friend and accompanist Liga, after a recital for Museum Night at the Jewish Museum on May 18th, 2013 in Riga, Latvia

Not long into my Fulbright grant, I wrote down a list of concepts that I wanted to further integrate into my life—a sort of prayer, if you will, that was to be uttered as a daily reminder to center myself on my values. In it, I wrote, “May I have the courage to fall down and get back up.” I meant it metaphorically, of course, but alas, in the defining moment of my year, I got to learn what that really meant.

It’s not the story I expected to tell, and it’s probably not the most comfortable to read. Three months into my Fulbright Study/Research grant to Latvia to study Voice, I was invited to perform a recital at one of Riga’s coolest venues for Valentine’s Day – the Kalnciema Kvartals. I was really excited—it was a great opportunity that could only lead to more good things.

Then, I fell. On my way to the rehearsal, I slipped on ice, and fell. Big time. I hit my ankle against the wall, and broke it straight through. But fear not! This is a happy story, as what resulted was one of the most challenging but greatest lessons in the kindness of strangers, friends, and family, in patience, in resilience, and so much more.

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