Fulbright Alumni Ambassador Archives - Page 7 of 8

The Strands Coming Together: An Indian-American in Mumbai

July 27, 2015

Aditya Voleti, 2011-2012, India (orange umbrella), joins some IIT-Bombay students in doing some monsoon exploration of the mountains of Matheran surrounding the city of Mumbai, India

My Fulbright year can be described as the culmination of all the disparate strands of my academic career and personal identity. I was an Indian-American double-major in Mathematics and Sanskrit; so it made sense to go to Mumbai (also known as Bombay) and live for a year as an American expatriate in India translating Sanskrit mathematical texts into English.

My application came together through constant talks with professors, their connections, their connections’ connections and so on. I advise potential applicants to tap into their professors’ networks as well. Through my professors, I was connected with a Sanskrit mathematician to host me at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and with editors who used their deep research and Fulbright knowledge to make my application a winning one.

While I could have gone to one of over 140 different countries on a Fulbright grant, tying my application to India was a conscious decision. Living in Bombay with an independent income, in my own room, while making friends at a university could not have been a more radical departure from my previous experiences in the country, where I was chauffeured around by my family and mainly interacted with my cousins. As one of several Indian-American Fulbrighters, I was able to bring a different, and crucial, element to the cross-cultural exchange. If you find an opportunity in your heritage country, consider it seriously.

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U.S. Fulbright

Impact Begins with the Individual

July 20, 2015

Stephanie Herzog, 2012-2013, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Romania (left, back row by blackboard) takes some of her students from her English Language Enthusiasts Club at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, Romania to a local middle school English class to give her university students hands-on English teaching experience

About a year after I had completed my Fulbright English Language Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in Romania, I received an email from a student in one of the literary analysis courses I had taught at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi:

“…In the past few days I’ve been rereading Fitzgerald’s ‘Babylon’ revisited and ‘Cathedral’ by Raymond Carver and I actually got myself a copy of S. Anderson’s ‘Winesburg, Ohio’ because I had a very nice time reading the first short story of the collection. I am writing you this email because I really wanted to thank you for the wonderful opportunity you gave us to study these beautiful short stories and for the great way of discussing them in class. Your teaching method, academic and professional yet very warm and good-hearted, had a very high impact on me and made me actually look for more stories from those authors and even others. Thanks to you, I’m a little more into American literature than I was before, and I’m really grateful for that…”

Measuring the impact you have had on the local community you lived in while completing a Fulbright grant is not very easy, but this message reminded me that impact begins on an individual level. Everyone I had encountered and worked with while I was in Romania resulted in a very unique cultural and educational exchange that challenged my own mindset. It was nice to know, from the email above, that I challenged the mindsets of those I had met as well.

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U.S. Fulbright

What to Do When Offered Barbeque Stingray in Singapore

July 16, 2015

Patrick Kramer, 2013-2014, Singapore (third from left), and the running club Kikikukiki in Pulau Ubin, Singapore

Be bold. Being a Fulbrighter requires being bold above anything else. During my year in Singapore, the simple act of saying “yes” led to an amazing range of experiences: preparing dumplings by hand for Chinese New Year, running an ultra-marathon, creating many strong relationships that made me feel at home halfway around the world, and yes, eating sambal (barbeque) stingray.

As a researcher, I was studying dengue virus and how it morphs from a non-infectious to an infectious state. By itself, the project was quite technical and could have remained as an isolated series of laboratory experiments. However, by reaching out to the local public health officials, I gained insight into the effects of the disease from a social perspective and was able to contextualize my results in a broader picture. Relationships made in the lab also led to new collaborations, which led to the aforementioned holiday dumpling cooking sessions.

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Don Quixote’s Fast Lane!

July 14, 2015

Radhameris A. Gómez Gabriel, 2013-2014, Spain, attending the Fulbright España Mid-Year Meeting in Valencia (Photo credit: Fulbright España)

During the 2013-2014 academic year, I had the opportunity to travel with a Fulbright U.S. Student Fellowship to the medieval city of Toledo, Spain to experience nine months of excitement and discovery. As a transportation engineer, my passion is road safety—that is, the safe movement of people on our roadways. In Toledo, I was hosted at the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM), where I researched the various methods of facilitating the safe movement of vulnerable road users at highway-rail crossings.

Alongside my Spanish advisors and colleagues, I researched the various engineering, educational and policy practices that have been implemented in parts of the FEVE Rail system in the Northern Region of Cantabria in Spain and how this information can benefit U.S. rail safety. I spent time with engineers and railroad staff in the cities of Torrelavega and Santander, performing field visits as well as exchanging knowledge on common issues of the rail sector on both sides of the pond.

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U.S. Fulbright

I Have Never Been to Las Vegas: Representing My Rural Roots as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant

July 10, 2015

Joanie Andruss, 2013-2014, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Montenegro, and her students present The Zavjestanje Project at the American Corner in Podgorica, Montenegro

Have you met Michael Jackson? Is America dangerous? How many times have you been to Las Vegas? These were some of the questions Montenegrins asked when I arrived as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). Perhaps my answers were surprising as they represented a different American view from what was expected. I grew up in the rural Pacific Northwest, where nature was another parent and teacher, and these early experiences significantly shaped my perspective. In my role as an ETA, I was motivated to spark new questions about my particular American lifestyle within my Montenegrin community.

While assistant teaching at the University of Montenegro, I infused my communication and Academic English courses with stories representing the diversity of the American experience. I sought to provide an alternative picture from what is often presented through mainstream media as “THE American Lifestyle” with examples from my own rural upbringing. Throughout the year, my parents sent copies of my hometown weekly paper, the Hells Canyon Journal, and I thought: “What a great resource to engage students in a meaningful exploration of a rural American community!” Providing small groups of students with their own copy of the Journal, I asked them to select stories which they would use to prepare a short news broadcast. The students were particularly taken with the cover story of the drunken songbirds that ate fermented berries outside of the town library one winter day, and the inside stories of cowboy antics certainly drew lots of questions and laughter. Students later created their own scripts and newscasts that featured real and imagined events in Montenegro.

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U.S. Fulbright

Talking International: Adventures at Nerd Nation with Phi Theta Kappa and Fulbright

July 6, 2015

Deeneaus Polk, 2011-2012, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Germany, giving a presentation at Phi Theta Kappa’s 2015 Nerd Nation event in April

Recently, I had a chance to attend Phi Theta Kappa’s annual International Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Phi Theta Kappa is the honor society of the two-year college, and has prided itself in having a strong international membership and presence around the globe. The convention for me was a coming home party. I had served as an international officer, presiding over an International Convention in Philadelphia, and former international officers often return to conventions to take in the sights and relive past glories.

This convention was going to be a different experience, however, because I also returned as a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador. One of the things that motivate me to go to work every day is the idea that I can expose folks to the opportunities and experiences that I have been extraordinarily lucky to be a part of. My return to the convention had a second motive, to connect the Gilman Scholarship and Fulbright with the unique experience that is Phi Theta Kappa. The convention typically brings about 5,000 Phi Theta Kappans together from chapters across the United States and international chapters in places such as the British Virgin Islands, and the United Arab Emirates, amongst others. Experiencing this gathering of varied cultures really a sight to behold, especially when one considers that many Phi Theta Kappans are non-traditional students who often do not get the opportunity to meet many individuals from other places. Combine these new involvements with an ethos of academic curiosity and a deep sense of servitude, and those three days are truly magical.

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