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U.S. Fulbright

U.S. Diplomat in Germany Reflects on Value of Fulbright Experience

January 11, 2018

In front of the Brandenburg Gate, the famous sign warns that one is about to leave West Berlin. Photo credit: Jeffrey A. VanDreal

Jeff VanDreal has spent the last 30 years as an American diplomat, representing the United States overseas on four continents and managing some of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions in the world. Before joining the U.S. Foreign Service, he studied in Berlin in 1986-1987 as a Fulbright U.S. Student to West Germany. He’s back in Germany now, this time as the Minister-Counselor for Management Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.

We recently interviewed VanDreal to learn more about his experience in Berlin prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and to ask how his Fulbright experience prepared him for a global career in American diplomacy.

How did you originally hear about the Fulbright Program, and who/what inspired you to apply?

I had known, vaguely, about the Fulbright Program since high school, as I had always been interested in student exchange programs. It never occurred to me to actually apply, however, until a colleague of mine at St. Antony’s College in Oxford, UK, successfully applied for a grant. As I was finishing my master’s degree in International Relations, I had applied to the Foreign Service but wished to extend my studies for one more year. The Fulbright Program provided the perfect vehicle for doing so.

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U.S. Fulbright

Preparing for a Bauhaus-Filled Year in Germany

September 10, 2014
Meghan Forbes

Meghan Forbes, 2014-2015, Germany, taking a lunch break by the waters of the Tiergarten

This September, I will be trading Ann Arbor, Michigan’s autumnal canopy of maples for the bicycles, parks, and museums of Berlin, Germany. On a Fulbright grant, I will be in Berlin to further my Ph.D. dissertation research, which contends the role of the Czech avant-garde is a significant yet overlooked link in the vast network of exchange that existed across various European centers of art making in the interwar period.

My research centers around the Bauhaus, a modernist school of art and architecture based originally in Weimar and then in Dessau in the period between the two World Wars. Although its unique pedagogy, functionalist aesthetic, and transnational influence have been documented, there is an absence in scholarly literature regarding the dynamic relationship between the school’s major figures in Germany and their peers in then Czechoslovakia. I aim to fill this gap by mapping the influence of the Bauhaus eastward and reciprocally, the influence of the Bauhaus’ eastern neighbor on the school’s aesthetic ethos.The implications of this revised telling are especially pertinent as the humanities move towards a more interdisciplinary approach, by encouraging a shift in historical narratives that sees multiple centers where once only one was perceived.

A large portion of my research will be in cooperation with the Berlinische Galerie and the Bauhaus and Werkbund archives. From these sources, I will be looking for correspondence and other documents that show a particular Czech influence on the German Bauhaus – for example, in theory and practice corresponding to typographic design.

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U.S. Fulbright

Beyond the Book: My Fulbright Year in Germany

November 13, 2013
Gail Taylor - 1

Gail Taylor, 2011-2012, Germany, in front of the Herzog August Bibliothek in
Wolfenbüttel

The best research goes beyond the book. Thus, my Fulbright year in Germany opened up new ways of exploring an area of interest: the reception of New World plants into the medicine of Reformation-era Germany. My Study/Research grant allowed me to use the renowned early modern collection of the Herzog August Bibliothek (HAB) in Wolfenbüttel as basis for my historical research. I found that each genre located in the HAB—travel narratives, medical books, herbals, pharmacopoeias, almanacs, apothecary regulations—has its own way of looking at imported remedies. Every morning as I walked to the library, plugged in my laptop, and spread my books out on the reading-room table, I saw New World plants, foods, and peoples through the eyes of 16th century explorers, physicians, and theologians. But only outside the library among friends and different places could these findings come to life.

At a library garden party, I met a local woman who once taught beginning pharmacists. She offered to show me her pharmacy and collections of herbal specimens. Over discussions of how medicine has changed over the last 500 years, we became friends. In her specimen box, I saw the New World plants as they would have looked in 16th century Germany: a pale cross section of sassafras, twisted roots of sarsaparilla, and dark chunks of guaiacum bark, the same dried medicinal plants described in medical books and herbals from the 1500s.

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U.S. Fulbright

A Letter to Fulbright Applicants, By Julia Anderlé de Sylor, 2009-2010, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany

October 24, 2012

 

Congratulations!

You have made it past the first stage of applying for a Fulbright grant. Those hours spent writing and revising Personal Statements and Statements of Grant Purpose, filling out seemingly never-ending forms, hunting down and begging professors for recommendations and language assessments, making copies, printing and finally, submitting your electronic application— it’s all over, finito, basta, fertig. You are officially halfway through the Fulbright application process.

You are now, to quote my father, a potential “Halfbright.”

Still ahead: what I found to be the most difficult aspect of applying, months of torturous uncertainty. 

Why am I congratulating you, then, when it’s not even over and you may not have been awarded a grant? Because just getting past stage one is a very remarkable accomplishment. I have spoken to many Fulbright alumni and it is universally agreed that the Fulbright application is one of the most time-consuming and energy-draining scholarship applications. It’s practically the equivalent of applying to ten graduate schools at once!

But is it worth it?

Absolutely.

My Fulbright experience in Germany, in 2009 as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant literally changed the course of my life. Before coming to Germany (when I was still in the first stage of applying), I had planned on being in Germany for a year, and then applying to grad schools in the United States. I hoped to improve my German, take a few German literature classes at the Universität Bonn, and naturally, teach English in a German high school − all activities which would, with luck, increase my chances of getting into a prestigious Ph.D. program.

That was the plan. But, as Robert C. Gallagher once said, “Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.”

Now it’s 2012 and I am back in Europe. I had enjoyed assistant teaching English and studying in Germany so much that I decided to enroll in a dual master’s degree program in French-German studies at the Universität Bonn and l’Université Paris-Sorbonne. My first year, post-Fulbright, was spent studying at the Sorbonne and working as a Teaching Assistant in two Parisian high schools. This just goes to show that Fulbright really can change your life.

I am also incredibly grateful for the friends I met through Fulbright. Germany has a very strong Fulbright alumni network (which you can become a part of, even if you are not yet an alum), and they have both national and regional networks. The national network organizes four to five big events per year (including the unforgettable Winterball, which this year will take place in the beautiful Schwerin Castle in northern Germany), while the regional group helps to organize outings and smaller get-togethers such as Fulbright Thanksgivings. These networks emphasize an incredibly important aspect of the Fulbright Program: the meaningful, life-long connections you are bound to make. I cannot express how thankful I am for the long-lasting friendships that I have made through Fulbright.

I wish all of you perseverance and steady nerves for the next few months; despite all of the paperwork and countless hours, it really is worth it. I’ve been in your shoes and I know how the uncertainty feels.

Best wishes and good luck to all you stalwart “Halfbrights!” I stand with you in Ful-support!

Photo: Julia Anderlé de Sylor, 2009-2010, Fulbright ETA to Germany, with Ulrich Götz, German Fulbright alumnus and Fulbright Alumni Coordinator for Bonn and Cologne, attending a Fulbright information fair and speaking to high school students about the program

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U.S. Fulbright

Stories from Berlin’s Schools, By Samson Lim, 2010-2011, Germany

July 23, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“How do I tell a student who wants to be a bank manager that he’s in the wrong school and will never be able to accomplish his dream?” As a 2008 Humanity in Action Fellow, I remember shaking my head when I heard these words uttered by a teacher at the school we were visiting.

Germany has long maintained a stratified three-tier education system in which only students in the top track (Gymnasium, or university preparatory school) have a shot at attending university. In relaying this story of a young boy who aspired to be a bank manager but was not in a Gymnasium, the teacher expressed a feeling of perplexed helplessness for late-blooming students such as this boy.

That experience inspired me to spend extended time in Berlin—beyond just a four- or five-week program—to talk to and learn from young students as they progress in their own educational journey. The Fulbright Program offered me the perfect opportunity to conduct such an ethnographic research project. I visited all types of schools in Berlin and spoke with students, families and teachers about how they perceived access to education in Germany, particularly in the context of social mobility.

Through my university’s connections in Berlin, I was able to connect with the chair of American Studies at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, who subsequently became my primary affiliation for my Fulbright project.  He also connected me with another research professor at a large social sciences research institute in Berlin giving me a second affiliation for my project.

More than anything, my research project taught me that I do not want to spend my life doing research. While this may seem counterintuitive, this revelation impacted me in two ways: 1) I realized that I wanted to pursue a career devoted to public service and direct action in my community, and 2) I understood that I had much more to learn about education and policy.

As such, I’ll be heading to Teachers College, Columbia University this fall to pursue a Master of Education in Politics and Education even though I had not planned on pursuing graduate studies for another few years. My Fulbright experience sparked an even greater desire to delve deeper into two issues that I am passionate about: social justice and educational opportunity.

For anyone thinking about applying, the best advice I can offer is: simply apply.

I sought out mentors at my university, who helped me hone my ideas and critique my essays multiple times before I finally submitted my application, and spoke with several former Fulbrighters to pick their brains about their experiences. Unequivocally, their responses affirmed my decision to apply and pursue an opportunity to conduct research abroad.

More than just research or teaching, I had an opportunity to travel and see Europe, immerse myself in Germany’s fascinating culture and through it all, make friends for life. So, do yourself a favor.  Apply for the chance to become a Fulbright Student.

Photo: Samson Lim, 2010-2011, Germany, visits the Paul-Natorp-Oberschule in Berlin’s Schöneberg neighborhood to talk with students about diversity in the United States

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