Last year, Fulbright Program Participants made strides in education, art, and science across the globe. Take a look back on the year in the 2018 Fulbright Year in Review.
My journey began after I left the Japanese Ministry of Defense, where I’d worked for nine years, to become a Masters student at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, on a Fulbright fellowship from 2009 to 2011. I chose SAIS to study international security and to expand my network with security experts in DC, which is the center of politics. This experience opened doors for me to meet esteemed professionals and continues to influence my career.
Mihoko at her commencement from Johns Hopkins University
I have always been interested in international security and wanted to study it in a global environment, in a second language, to learn from a different perspective. Since I didn’t know when I’d ever get to live outside my own country again, I wanted to take advantage of my time in D.C. to get to know many people and their cultures. When I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, I made two goals. The first was to make international friends. The second was to publish at least one article in English before graduation.
An American classmate and Fulbright alum had me over to her parents’ home in Chicago for Christmas in 2009 and 2010. Another American classmate (also a Fulbrighter alum) invited me to her parents’ home in upstate New York to celebrate Thanksgiving in 2010. This was my first traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. Their hearty welcome and friendship definitely made my time in the United States memorable and special.
Cybersecurity began to attract attention in the United States when I was a student. One of my classmates, an editor for a policy journal, was looking for a contributor to write an article about Asian cybersecurity, and asked me if I knew anyone who could write about the topic. I told her that I could, and this marked a turning point in my career. She helped me publish a blog which became my first English piece on cybersecurity.
After graduation from SAIS, I had one more year to stay in the United States on my Fulbright visa to do academic training. Since I wanted to earn more professional and academic experience, I did two fellowships at Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies (now Pacific Forum), a think tank based in Honolulu, to research Japan-US cybersecurity collaboration.
A SAIS colleague who graduated one year ahead of me joined a cybersecurity firm and introduced me to his colleagues who does research on Asia. My publications were helpful to prove my interest in cybersecurity. Since most Japanese news articles about cybersecurity are never translated into English, I started to share English summaries with my colleagues when I was with Pacific Forum.
Right before my second fellowship at Pacific Forum ended, I went to see a friend, an American Fulbrighter alum, to say goodbye. At the time I was thinking about being jobless soon, and I was quite scared. He shared his experience after earning his PhD and encouraged me to aim high and stay positive, even in challenging circumstances. I was reminded of the power of the Fulbright network and was encouraged to persevere not just to find the right job for me, but also to help others through our international network.
It has been almost seven years since the end of my Fulbright fellowship at SAIS. I am still involved in global cybersecurity policy, and write and speak about it all the time. While my career path has turned out to be different than the traditional Japanese path of staying in one organization, it also enabled me to be adventurous, travel all over the world, meet people, and make so many international friends.
A few years ago, I bumped into a woman who helped me with my Fulbright visa process at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in 2009. She was doing her PhD then and her research focus now includes cybersecurity. This is the beauty of Fulbright: getting to know a diverse group of passionate people and learning from each other.
To those who are interested in the Fulbright Program but are hesitant for any reason, I cannot emphasize this enough: Go for it! Don’t be afraid to be different. Your journey will be full of adventures, Fulbright passion, and friends.
FLTA Foreign Fulbright Reach the World
Meet a Fulbrighter: How We Celebrated International Education Week
November 20, 2018
FLTA Foreign Fulbright Reach the World
U.S. Classrooms Celebrate International Education Week with Fulbrighters
November 13, 2018In celebration of International Education Week 2018, six Fulbright Foreign Students, Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, and Fulbright Visiting Scholars will visit elementary, middle, and high schools in Kentucky, Nebraska, and New York. The visits will take place from November 13 to November 16, and are sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), in partnership with Reach the World.
The Fulbrighters will share the culture of their home countries with the students and describe their Fulbright experiences. The visits will allow American students to increase their global understanding by meeting a foreign Fulbrighter. With a diverse group of participants and classrooms, these visits will help increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries. The visits will build on another partnership between ECA and Reach the World, in which these same classrooms are holding virtual exchanges with U.S. exchange students who are studying overseas through Fulbright and other ECA exchange programs.
Follow along with the U.S. classrooms this week and meet a Fulbrighter, by tracking and using #Fulbright on social media.
Meet the Fulbright participants:
Pritesh Chakraborty
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant from India
New York University
Hi, I’m Pritesh. I’m an assistant professor and research scholar at West Bengal State University in India. I’m a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant with Fulbright, but my area of interest is comic book studies. I love comic books because I love stories and I’m interested in the rich heritage of English literature. Right now, I teach Hindi to elementary level language learners as part of my Fulbright award, and I’ll begin teaching intermediate levels next semester.
Lei Chen
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant from China
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Hi, I’m Lei! I’m from China and I’m a lecturer. I received my B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Language and Literature from Liaoning University, China. I’ve been teaching at Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for 8 years after getting my Master’s degree. Currently, I’m a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, teaching Chinese 101 and 201, and sharing Chinese culture with my students.
Abeer Khlaifat
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant from Jordan
University of Kentucky
Hello, I’m Abeer Khlaifat from Jordan, and I grew up in the capital city, Amman. Arabic is my passion, and I decided that I would study it at the age of 12. I have both a B.A. and M.A. in Arabic and I’ve worked as a teacher for Americans and other international students who are studying abroad in Jordan. This was part of my motivation to come to the U.S., where I’m currently a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the University of Kentucky.
Anna Potapova
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant from Russia
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Hello, I’m Anna! I have a lot of experience teaching English to adults and I also received my CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification from St. Giles College, Brighton, UK. I have a degree in Romance and Germanic philology from Ivanovo State University. I have a number of other certificates and qualifications, but my main professional interests are methods of teaching English and Russian as a foreign language, the lexical approach, and using authentic speaking as a speaking model. I’m currently teaching Russian 101 to college students at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and organize cultural events to promote Russian culture in America. I also have a fluffy cat, who is extremely cuddly.
Francesca Scafuto
Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Italy
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Hello! I’m Dr. Francesca Scafuto and I’m a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Ramapo College of New Jersey. I’m from Italy, and I’m an experienced Adolescent and Young Adult Psychotherapist. I’m interested in how people think as a community about the environment, and I’m studying social science and environmental health during my Fulbright. I’m also an artist and I like to paint in my free time.
Nina Siegfried
Fulbright Foreign Student from Germany
University of Louisville
I’m from Germany and I’m currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Sports Administration at the University of Louisville. I grew up a competitive athlete and decided to pursue sports management at an early age. I participated in an exchange year in high school and lived with a host family while attending Apollo High School in Owensboro, KY. I studied for my undergraduate degree in the Netherlands and received a B.A. in International Studies and Management from Arnhem Business School. I also studied abroad in Hong Kong to receive a minor in Marketing.
Foreign Fulbright
2018 Fulbright Amizade Participants Interview West Virginia Community Leaders
September 20, 2018
Sometimes we need to move across the ocean for that huge, transformative experience. Imagine a teacher of English winning the Fulbright scholarship and getting to come to the country where English is spoken not only by its citizens but also by thousands of other international students pursuing their dreams! It’s a great feeling of happiness, joy, delight and so much more when you are given a platform to live your dream!
Olga Litvinova at the Linguistics Department of Montclair State University, New Jersey, her host institution
That was just the way I was feeling about the opportunity to do research at the Linguistics Department of Montclair State University, New Jersey. I have been lucky to investigate the binding power of English as an international language first-hand. My research involved collecting texts and interviews from non-native speakers of English to discover how their personality impacts the way they use this language and how their identities are transformed in the process.
Thanks to the Fulbright Program and a number of networking events, I could take advantage of connecting with people from around the world and hearing their stories. Over these ten months I have found myself experiencing different locations on the world map, including some places I didn’t know existed. I not only expanded my network through extensive geography and culture classes, but more importantly, I met with American and international students who do things that make life worth living. We would get together to talk, to laugh, to share – our lives, our stories, our worries. I also learned about the bonds created through food as I went out for meals with fellow Fulbrighters.
Olga (left) enjoying a Manhattan cruise with fellow Fulbrighters
Another beautiful thing that is even better when done in a group is traveling. With my new friends I would have never met if it wasn’t for the Fulbright, I got to explore the crazy world of New York City – a perfect playground for a linguist that made me want to try to learn even more languages to understand more of the enchanting polyphony of its streets. It was equally wonderful to go beyond NYC and get a taste of the unique beauty and character of other parts of the United States. Never at any point during my academic, social and personal journey have I felt like a foreigner because of the Americans, and the entire international crowd, who supported me during my Fulbright and gave me something to miss when I return home.
I am still working on answering my research questions, but I can conclude that the effect a Fulbright experience has on our personality and identity is beyond words. I know we will all return to our homes different people – more humble and educated about this world and feeling so much smaller and more connected thanks to all the beautiful people each of us has had the honor of meeting along the way.
Read more about Olga’s Fulbright research project, and her Fulbright experience.