Yearly Archives:

2016

U.S. Fulbright

Double Immersion: Stories from a Fulbright-Schuman Grantee

February 1, 2016
Lin Shi-1

Lin Shi, 2013-2014, European Union (right, holding microphone) on a panel presentation during the 60th annual Berlin Seminar for American Fulbright Scholars

The Fulbright-Schuman program afforded me nine amazing months of research and life experience in the European Union. This particular grant was unique in that my host “country” was not one in particular, but the European Union as a whole. One requirement of my grant was that I needed to spend time in at least two host countries. So, for the sake of my research in pensions, I chose to spread my time between the Netherlands and Belgium.

The subject of pensions has a reputation for being a not-so-interesting topic, but it is tremendously important. Currently in the United States, pension plans are shifting from traditional pensions with guaranteed monthly benefits provided by the employer, to plans like the 401(k), which are based largely on employee savings. Over 30% of non-retirees have not saved for retirement; almost 60% have saved less than $25,000, which is far from sufficient. Europe faces its own retirement concerns, as it is the only continent that is projected to have a negative population growth rate over the next 50 years; by 2060, there will be only two people of working age in the EU to sustain every person aged over 65, as compared to a ratio of four to one today. For my research, I collaborated with the Center of Research in Public and Population Economics in Liège, Belgium and with the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam, the Netherlands to study a mix of workforce exit patterns, pension risk appetite, and pension fund management diversity, all in an international context.

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U.S. Fulbright

Dreams and Friendship in Macedonia

January 18, 2016
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Abigail Jones, 2014–2015, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Macedonia (fourth from left), helped facilitate the Dreams and Friendship Exchange, a virtual exchange between students at Krste Petkov Misirkov in Bistrica, Macedonia and Ferry Pass Middle School in Pensacola, Florida. In this picture, some of the participants are shown after their last online class in May.

In the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we are re-posting an article from Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Macedonia Abigail Jones, who through the Dreams and Friendship Exchange promoted interethnic and intercultural understanding between students in Macedonia and the United States. We hope that the Fulbright community is inspired by Abigail Jones’ – and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s – work in fostering positive change in their host and home communities.

I arrived in Resen, Macedonia in a cab I paid too much for. I stood on the side of the road and called my host teacher from my new cell phone. I had only spoken to Maja twice, but I recognized the smile in her voice through the windshield of her red Volkswagon. My two under-twenty-five-kilo suitcases filled the backseat. I reached for a seatbelt that wasn’t there. Maja’s mother, Sonja, met us in their front yard and gave me the kind of hug I remember when I am asked to summarize my year in Macedonia.

My official Fulbright assignment was to assist in high school English classes. In the fall, I taught with Maja at the high school in Resen. My assignment moved to a music high school in Bitola for the spring. Throughout the year, I also spent two or three days a week at a junior high school in a village outside of Bitola, helping facilitate the pilot of an embassy-sponsored project called the Dreams and Friendship Exchange—a virtual exchange program that promotes English language learning and interethnic, intercultural understanding through partnering students in Macedonia and America.

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Foreign Fulbright

Participating in an Open House at the Islamic Center of Manhattan, Kansas

January 4, 2016
Hamza Rehman

Hamza Rehman, 2013-2014, Pakistan (left) engaging with a diverse, interfaith crowd at his local mosque’s open house in Manhattan, Kansas. The mosque event sought to dispel common myths and stereotypes about Muslims in the United States.

Pakistan is a country rich in cultures: Pathan, Punjabi, Baluchi and Sindhi, amongst others. As a Fulbright Student at Kansas State University, I aimed to convey some of Pakistan’s diversity and ethos in my fiction and non-fiction courses as a part of the Master of Arts in English Literature and Creative Writing program. To the United States at large—through conversation and interactions, I brought to life Pakistan’s historic Indus Valley Civilisation and its vales, mangrove forests, the Baltoro Glacier, the snowed-in Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush. To my Kansas State (“K-State”) peers in fiction workshop, I highlighted Pakistan’s diversity in my writing and engaged its many tongues and motley racial make-up: from blue-eyed, dark-blondes to tan-skinned, black haired characters.

Given Pakistan’s own ethnic and lingual heterogeneity, I was surprised when a K-State PhD candidate in Psychology solicited my help for a peculiar reason: because I was Pakistani, he wanted to use my voice in an “accents study” for his dissertation as an example of the “Arab accent.” Although I lauded his project and agreed to volunteer, his geography seemed off to me. After considerable explanation from my side, he reluctantly came to appreciate why I didn’t sound Arab: South Asia isn’t a part of the Middle East! He had said, “But it’s the same thing, right?” I responded, “No. Here’s a map. For an Arab accent, I’d begin with the Arab world, and even there, Arabic varies from country to country, and even city.” He narrowed his eyes incredulously, realizing “Muslim” didn’t always imply “Arab.” In that moment, the world became bigger for him, became less “U.S. and the rest.”

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