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Anna Pettus

Reach the World U.S. Fulbright

Fulbright Alumna Connects Middle School Students to Global Perspectives

November 16, 2018

Tanya Wacholz was a 2012 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany

Some experiences change the trajectory of your life forever. For Tanya Wacholz, that experience was a trip to China to visit the sister school of her Minnesota high school. “At the time, I didn’t know anyone who traveled abroad or lived in other countries,” she recalls, “and there I was in Tianjin and Beijing, meeting people whose cultures were so different and exciting.” Later, in college at the University of Minnesota, Tanya became interested in German and spent a semester in Freiburg, Germany, studying post-war history and German colonialism. After graduation, she moved back to Germany, this time to Berlin, in order to improve her German language skills. Considering a career in education and looking to gain experience, she applied for and received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to help 12th- and 13th-grade students in Birkenwerder, Germany, prepare for the Abitur, their all-important cumulative exams.

During her time as a Fulbright ETA, Tanya volunteered for Reach the World, a nonprofit organization offering virtual exchanges. She shared her experiences abroad with Keith Pitchford’s middle school students in Hope Mills, North Carolina. “I wanted to help my present and future students on both sides of the Atlantic,” she remembers, “and I wanted my experiences abroad to have a trans-national impact.” Keith’s students were studying World War II. Tanya channeled her love of history and documented her experiences at key historical sites around Berlin. She shared engaging stories with Keith’s students vis the Reach the World platform, breathing fresh life into the topic. “The experience taught me a lot about how to get students interested in other cultures and open their minds to new places and experiences.”

Following her Fulbright ETA, Tanya returned to Minnesota and taught through Teach For America in the Minneapolis area. Says Tanya, “I came home with the same mission that I had when I started my Fulbright experience–to become a teacher. I felt prepared to take on a new challenge. I felt ready to run my own classroom, and I knew what I wanted my classroom to feel like. I knew TFA was going to be a challenge, but I was prepared.” Through TFA, Tanya earned her Master’s degree and championed equity for all students in her classrooms.

To that end, and due to a partnership between Reach the World and Teach for America, she became a Reach the World teacher herself, welcoming the next wave of Fulbright scholars into her classroom through their own virtual exchanges. “My students are so engaged when their traveler is on the screen right in front of them, sharing their experiences in a new place,” she says. Tanya’s 8th-grade English Language Learner students at Hiawatha College Prep often have international backgrounds themselves, so they’re especially interested in what languages their Reach the World traveler speaks. They are also very interested in globalization and issues surrounding refugees in other parts of the world, and together with co-teacher Ryane Hardy, Tanya enriches classroom curriculum with the travelers’ global perspectives.

“They ask so many questions,” Tanya says. “The Fulbright travelers we connect with through Reach the World are people my students really want to know and learn from. My students walk away from their virtual exchanges feeling like they’ve shared their international backgrounds and gotten so much in return. It plants a seed that motivated and curious students can go on to college and be in control of their own global experiences.”

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Reach the World

Inviting the World into U.S. Classrooms

November 15, 2018

Michelle Martin-Sullivan’s love of languages began—as many lifelong passions do—with a great teacher. In Nadia Yousfi-Roy’s high school Spanish class in Dallas, Texas, Michelle quickly grew passionate about (and fluent in) Spanish. She recalls, “I saw the life that Ms. Yousfi-Roy was able to live because she spoke so many languages and had lived in such interesting places, and I want that for myself.” Michelle spent a summer increasing her fluency in Costa Rica. After returning home to Texas, she embraced the opportunities presented within her community to learn from native speakers. “Growing up in Texas can be a Spanish-language immersion experience if you look for it,” Michelle says. When Spanish became second nature, she accepted a new challenge from

Michelle and a colleague outside her kindergarten classroom in Jordan

Ms. Yousfi-Rou to honor the other half of her Spanish/Moroccan heritage by taking up Arabic. “I expected to pick up Arabic just as quickly,” Michelle said, “but I quickly learned otherwise.”

As an undergraduate at West Point and The University of Michigan, Michelle dedicated herself to the study of Arabic. Upon graduation, she moved to a small town outside of Amman, Jordan, where she taught kindergarten for a year and continued to practice her language skills. She loved the complexity and challenge of Arabic. By the time she moved back to the U.S. in 2015, she had finally achieved an intermediate-to-high level of proficiency.

Seeking to use her teaching experience, Michelle joined Teach For America in Appalachian Kentucky and spent the next two years as the Spanish teacher at what became Floyd Central High School in Floyd County, Kentucky. She loved the people and the area so much that she has made it home. “For most of my life, I’ve wanted to be somewhere else,” Michelle says, “but my wanderlust never kicked in here. Our small community is tightly knit with a great family feel.”

Students in Kentucky get a glimpse out a traveler’s window

Finding that her students wanted to learn more about the world, Michelle began welcoming Fulbright travelers from all over the world into her classroom through a partnership with Reach the World, a non-profit organization that facilitates virtual exchanges with K-12 classrooms across the U.S. Says Michelle, “Teenagers tend to naturally push back on where they grew up, and they want to learn about where they’re not from. It’s such a great privilege to be able to introduce them to new cultures at this point. It’s a real eye-opener to interact with and get along with someone abroad who is so different than them.” During regular video-calls with Reach the World/Fulbright travelers, students apply the technical skills they’re already familiar with to new challenges, such as conversing in Spanish via Skype and reading reports about new cultures by their Reach the World travelers, translated into Spanish.

In addition to expanding their global mindset, Michelle’s students love to share their pride in where they’re from, jumping on the chance to bust stereotypes. “The experience of having to consider a different way of life raises the question, ‘How do I explain my culture to someone else?’ Michelle says. “Fulbright travelers show a genuine interest in where the students are coming from, and it makes for some very meaningful exchanges and relationships.”

Having worked with several Fulbright/Reach the World travelers in Spanish-speaking countries around the world, Michelle takes pride in the impact global education has had on her students. “I had 15- and 16-year-old students who already know that, when they graduate from college, they want to be Fulbright scholars. Many of my students have found mentors in the Fulbright travelers they’ve met through Reach the World, and they stay in touch long after the classroom exchange is over. They’ve learned that it’s financially possible to study abroad through organizations like The Fulbright Program. A former student is about to spend a semester in Italy and a summer in Peru, and on top of her Spanish major, she just picked up Hebrew and Arabic. Some of my students grew up without internet in their homes, and now, the world is literally their oyster.”

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U.S. Fulbright

All the World’s a Stage: Theater as Community Engagement

September 11, 2018

Anticipation buzzes across the blacked-out stage. In the wings, we ready ourselves. After a hundred hours of rehearsal, this moment comes at us at warp speed. Lights up, music on, action!

Didem Uca in LOVE in contact, July 14 and 15 at Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte

LOVE in Contact was a theater project devised by a team of thirteen individuals from different national, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, the culmination of six months of exploring love in all its facets. As both a researcher of contemporary migrant, multilingual, and transnational cultures in Germany and a lifelong thespian, I could feel my scholarly and creative sides coming together in ways I could not have imagined when I first began my Research Fellowship at Humboldt University of Berlin’s Institute for German Literature exactly ten months prior.

In my dissertation, I analyzed 20th and 21st century German-language novels and memoirs about young migrants and refugees. While my ‘day job’ took place in lecture halls and libraries, in the evenings, I explored the city’s rich cultural offerings, including attending performances of both traditional repertoire and avant-garde productions at theaters such as the Maxim Gorki and Ballhaus Naunynstraße, which produce plays by and for communities from migrant and refugee backgrounds. I also participated in Youngcaritas Kulturbuddys, a group that brings together 18-27-year-old refugees and non-refugees for cultural excursions. When the leaders of that group invited me to participate in a new theater project, I jumped at the chance to transition from scholar and audience member to creative writer and actor.

Collaborating with the cast and crew felt like putting theory into practice; it gave me first-hand experience of the kinds of transcultural labor performed by the writers and protagonists I examine in my research, simultaneously enriching my understanding of transnational, multilingual art forms and my own self-understanding as a Turkish-American PhD Candidate in German studies. Writing and performing in this production and even helping to create the sets has invigorated my desire to become an active participant in contemporary German culture rather than a mere observer. I also feel encouraged to incorporate the arts in my teaching, scholarship, and activist work so that students and members of the community may feel inspired to make German culture their own.

Left to right: Ebru Duman, Didem Uca, and Frederik Bechtel in LOVE in contact, July 14 and 15 at Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte

My advice for Fulbrighters about to begin their journeys and for prospective applicants envisioning their grants is to seek out opportunities for community engagement and creative practice, as these are just as vital a part of your role as cultural ambassador as your research and teaching. You can learn about opportunities for engagement by following cultural organizations on social media, scouring your host university’s bulletin boards, reading the arts and culture sections of local newspapers, and even Googling, which is how I found out about Kulturbuddys.

Senator J. William Fulbright defined the “essence of intercultural education” as the “acquisition of empathy––the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately.” Theater, like all forms of creative expression, can bring people into contact with new perspectives that challenge their own prejudices, hopefully leading, as Senator Fulbright had hoped, to a more empathetic world. So, how will you spend your time off the clock?

 

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There’s No Place Like Brussels

August 3, 2018

Presenting a poster for Ph.D. Day at the de Duve Institute.

I had no idea what to expect from Brussels as I prepared to make the de Duve Institute my new lab home for the year. As a black woman and first-generation Nigerian-American, I did not know if I would see myself represented in professional or social settings in Europe. What I did know was that I would be in a supportive lab environment working with the best microbiologists in the world to combat the global threat of antibiotic resistance.

In hindsight, Belgium was the perfect fit for me academically, professionally, and socially. I established relationships with European research institutions, further prepared myself for my Ph.D. Program in the Biomedical Sciences at the University of Michigan through my research project, and made friends across the world.

One of the most rewarding experiences I had as a scientist was at our lab retreat in Cadiz, Spain, where several labs across Europe met to present our research. During a career panel discussion, I looked around the room and saw 40+ scientists but no people of color. I raised my hand and asked, “Where are the women and people of color in leadership positions? The majority of people at this retreat are women, yet all of the people in charge of these labs are white men.“

Although extremely nervous, I felt obligated to be a voice for underrepresented (UR) minorities. As the only black voice, the only American voice, I could not allow the fear of asking a controversial question overshadow the opportunity to spark cross-cultural dialogue about the need for diversity in the sciences.

Spending the day at Grand Place with friends visiting from the U.S.

There was a pause followed by empathetic sighs and laughter. It was clear that they understood the gravity of my question and the paradox of discussing the need for diversity with a non-diverse panel. One of the panelists, the head of a major research institute in France, stated that they were deeply committed to diversifying STEM fields and had created task forces to increase the number of women in leadership positions. The other panelists echoed similar sentiments which prompted a passionate discussion about gender discrimination and implicit biases in STEM. Some made the point that increasing paternity leave would discourage employers from assuming that women would need more time off from their jobs than men. Others shared feelings of discouragement from seeing a room filled with female scientists only to see leadership roles filled by men. After the panel discussion, a few women expressed their gratitude for my question and I felt extremely proud for having the courage to embody the heart of the Fulbright Program.

Although my question was well-received, as the panelists and audience focused on gender, my point about race was lost. I was not surprised that this happened. Being the only person of color in the room, I recognized that people tend to focus on issues that they identify with. This further highlights the need for representation in these spaces so that UR groups will be supported and their needs addressed. Regardless, I am happy that I brought the issue to people’s attention. I hope that they will be sensitive to the challenges with representation of people of color in STEM moving forward.

Day trip to the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland with Fulbright grantees.

Related to my passion for advocating for UR groups, I created the @fulbrightnoir Instagram account to share the stories of black Fulbrighters. After meeting the first black Fulbrighters that I knew through Instagram, I wanted to encourage prospective UR applicants and UR groups within Fulbright by showcasing the diversity that exists within the program.

In addition to the @fulbrightnoir community, I connected with a Belgian woman through Instagram who introduced me to Matonge, an area central to the Congolese community in Belgium. This was the first time I was surrounded by people that looked like me and I felt right at home.

My advice to future Fulbrighters is to be open to meeting people through various platforms. Be creative, committed, and unyielding while creating your new home abroad. Social media was instrumental in building my social networks and finding social scenes that I missed direly in the U.S. Instagram connected me with a new side of Brussels that transformed my experience from great to perfect.

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