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Enrichment

Appalachia on the Cusp of Spring

March 14, 2016

Allison Braden, a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Bangladesh 2013-2014, is a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Alumni participant in the Fulbright Amizade 2016 service-learning activity.

I am, frankly, overwhelmed. In the first day and a half of my experience with Amizade in Appalachia, I’ve been forced to confront a swarm of questions that I don’t have answers to and are perhaps unanswerable, but our asking questions without necessarily arriving at conclusions will give shape to the rest of our week.

Today I saw a barber shop called Cuttin’ Up with Belinda. I loved that. I love Americana, and here, it’s everywhere. There are church steeples, American flags, and main streets. There aren’t very many streetlights. My mind jumps from comparison to comparison: Convenience stores selling a little of everything remind me of Bangladesh. The high school football stadium, an island of bright green in a sea of gravel on top of a mined mountain, made me think of Friday Night Lights on TV. The old pickup trucks and main streets remind me of south Georgia and country songs. Despite how different my own community is from the ones I’m getting to visit here and despite West Virginia’s reputation elsewhere in the country, my associations with small town America are almost universally positive. In fact, I have the tendency to romanticize rural communities.

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Meet the Fulbright Amizade Participants!

March 11, 2016

top_banner_email In March 2016, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will sponsor six Fulbright Foreign Student Program students, along with six Fulbright U.S. Student Program alumni to participate in a week-long service-learning program in Williamson, WV led by Amizade Global Service-Learning which empowers individuals and communities through worldwide volunteering.

During their week-long program in Williamson, Fulbrighters will participate in service activities and learning about the town and its history. Williamson is a small rural coal-mining town in Mingo County (WV) that once was home to 10,000 residents and a thriving coal economy in the mid-20th century. However, in recent years, Williamson has experienced a collapsed coal mining industry, a series of devastating floods, and de-population. Now a population of 3,000, community members have joined together to create Sustainable Williamson, the local organization with whom Fulbright students and alumni will be working. Sustainable Williamson is a small team of community organizations that work together to increase access to fresh foods, initiate active living programs, and teach healthy living styles. Throughout the week, the Fulbrighters will be sharing in, and learning how, community members are pioneering and engaging in thoughtful work in order to maintain their cultural framework while also creating a realm of new opportunities.

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2016 Philadelphia Foreign Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

March 10, 2016

From March 3-6, 2016, Fulbrighters took to the “City of Brotherly Love,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to participate in the 2016 Enrichment Seminar, “Democracy in Action: U.S. Politics and Elections.” Joining the more than 130 students over the course of local cultural site visits, community service activities, and a presidential election simulation workshop included accomplished political commentators, strategists, and academics.

Held at the Independence Visitor’s Center, the opening dinner welcomed CNN’s Michael A. Smerconish to deliver a phenomenal keynote address, “Stuck in the Middle with You: How Did We Get Where We Are (Politically) and What Will It Take to Get Out.” Smerconish, who is the author of two New York Times’ best sellers, analyzed the current fraught U.S. political climate heading into the 2016 general election in November, and even offered an apt comparison between the U.S. two-party system, voter preferences, and citizens’ proclivity to shop at specific grocery stores based on location.

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Enrichment

Fulbright and Amizade Partner for Appalachia Enrichment Activity

March 7, 2016

From March 12 – 19, 2016, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will sponsor six Fulbright Foreign Student Program students and six Fulbright U.S. Student Program alumni to participate in a week-long service-learning program led by Amizade in Williamson, WV.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Fulbright enrichment activities are designed to support the overall mission of the Fulbright Program – to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

Amizade, through its partnership with Sustainable Williamson in the Appalachia region, will offer Fulbright participants a number of enriching service opportunities throughout the week relating to education, agricultural and economic sustainability, community health and the discovery of how these community components are interrelated. Amizade is very excited to work with the Fulbright Program because of the international perspective provided by the Fulbright participants. Amizade values active social agents who are channeling their knowledge of Americana through Appalachia, a significant touchstone for the United States.

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Highlights from the 2016 Global Health Innovations Seminar

March 4, 2016

Fulbright Foreign Students attending the Global Health Innovations Seminar in Lexington, Kentucky

On February 24-28, 2016, the Fulbright Program, in partnership with the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health, hosted the second annual Global Health Innovations Seminar in Lexington, Kentucky. During the five day seminar, “Global Health and the UN Millennium Goals,” Fulbrighters had the opportunity to not only engage with fellow Fulbrighters, but with global health professionals and practitioners.

88 foreign students hailing from 47 different countries convened for a series of panels, workshops, and gatherings as they discussed pertinent topics in global health related to the success and lessons learned from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) focused on public health, namely MDG Goal 1 (Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger), Goal 4 (Reduce Child Mortality), Goal 5 (Improve Mental Health), and Goal 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria). Additional conversations were focused on how feedback from MDG target indicators will inform implementation of the recently United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 agenda.

Fulbright attendees included an impressive sampling of students studying various science and health-related disciplines, a few of which are global health, health policy, pharmaceutical economics, international development, and medical entomology.

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Highlights from the 2016 Denver Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

February 25, 2016

2015 Denver Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

Fulbright Foreign Students visiting Red Rocks Park during the Denver Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

The 2016 Denver Fulbright Enrichment Seminar held in Denver, Colorado brought students in direct conversation with U.S. electoral processes, traditions, and the practice of civic duty through volunteerism from February 18-21, 2016.

Over four exciting days the 129 foreign Fulbrighters gathered in the beautiful Rocky Mountains to discuss U.S. political values, participate in a wide range of volunteer activities, including working at food shelters and schools, and put “Democracy in Action” through a U.S. election simulation workshop.

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