Fulbright Alumni Ambassador Archives - Page 8 of 8

Fulbright: An Inspirational and Inclusive Community

June 9, 2015

Fulbright Disability Seminar attendees at an offsite session at the Bay Area Recreation and Outreach Program

Are you a U.S. citizen with a disability interested in applying for a Fulbright grant? Attend the webinar for applicants with disabilities on Friday, June 12, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET. To learn more, click here.

“The disability community is the one minority group that you can join.” In her key note address, Paralympics medalist and humanitarian aid worker, Tiana Tozer, shared her story of becoming disabled at the age of twenty when a drunk driver hit her car in oncoming traffic. Through her story, Tozer touched upon common assumptions, attitudes and stigmas that reinforce the exclusion of those with disabilities. She called on Fulbrighters to “educate change” through leadership and service and set the tone for an eye opening, interactive seminar.

From April 29 to May 3, over sixty Fulbrighters from forty different countries attended the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar on U.S Disability Rights in Berkeley, California. This seminar is one of several enrichment seminars that the U.S. Department of State sponsors for Fulbright Foreign Students in the United States.

Throughout the seminar, participants heard from key figures in the disability rights movement as well as those working towards broader community inclusion through policy, advocacy, and design. Several sessions stood out as exceptionally inspiring.

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U.S. Fulbright

A Bit of My Culture for a Bit of Yours

June 4, 2015

Derrell Acon, 2013-2014, Italy, performing “Da Dove Viene La Black Art” at the American University of Rome

And so it all began with an email stating that I had been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student grant. I would present on Black American Art while I researched operas by Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. I arrived in the country with wide eyes ready to buckle down on my research and tailor my Black Art presentations. Almost immediately, however, it became clear that it was not only about my projects. I could sense from the very beginning that I would be changed as a person. As an opera singer, I have traveled throughout the world quite often, but I have never lived in a place with a different culture and language for as extended a period of time as I did in Italy. From registering with the cities in which I would live to grocery shopping, to my one-on-one voice coachings with an Italian maestro who did not speak a touch of English, I slowly let the culture of the place wash over me. Time allowed me to notice subtleties in the language and the ways in which people interacted with one another. I began to gauge what was important in Italian culture and what was nonchalantly commonplace.

With the help of some old friends in Novafeltria, I first translated my Black Art lecture-recital into Italian (save the singing and poetry) and then contacted different venues that might host me. I performed “Da Dove Viene La Black Art” at places as awesome as the Liceo Leonardo da Vinci in Milan and the American University of Rome to a very packed audience. On the research side of things, I traveled to many beautiful cities seeking materials on the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. I attended lectures, operas, concerts, festivals, and so on to collect as much information as I could about the historic composer’s life and his music. I returned to the U.S. with hundreds of pages of notes and many great recordings.

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U.S. Fulbright

Reflections from Indonesia: Life as a “Secret Bule”

May 8, 2015

Christina Aguila, 2013-2014, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Indonesia (center), attending her surprise farewell party with fellow teachers in batik uniforms, an Indonesian tradition

One year ago, I was living in Manado, Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). I taught at a local high school, volunteered at a rural community English camp, and organized local English competitions. After four months, I had acclimated to many aspects of Indonesian culture, learned the local language, communicated in an indirect Indonesian manner, and ate extremely spicy food. I also learned to live with limited access to hot showers and reliable Wi-Fi. I developed deeper friendships with teachers at my school and got to know a few of my 300 students more personally. I was fully immersed in an Indonesian community, which taught me to be extremely patient and flexible.

Most importantly, I learned how to handle the process of cultural adaptation. Each stage of cultural adaptation comes with new accomplishments and unexpected challenges. One day I would be feeling confident in my ability to speak Bahasa Indonesia, and the next day I would sometimes feel very frustrated about a misunderstanding at my school.

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U.S. Fulbright

“Mo Kapav Koz en Kreol Aster” (I Can Speak in Kreol Now)

February 19, 2015

Diana Heise, 2011-2012, Mauritius, filming for “Lame La Kone” (The Knowing Hand) in the sugarcane fields by Barkly

To give a glance into my Fulbright experience in Mauritius, I need to begin with the fact that I am a classically trained singer and it was through my relationship with music that I submerged myself in Mauritian culture. I hadn’t seriously sung for years and did not expect this impact when I was applying. So, as you start your application, I would recommend that you consider all the activities that have defined you, as these interests will help you connect abroad. For me, it was through this latent relationship to music that I became an adopted member of the band ABAIM, the crux of my Fulbright experience and my ongoing research.

ABAIM is a musical atelier with 30 members of mostly young people. Their songs are inspired by Sega Tipik, the lament music of African slaves. Additionally, they are one of the last safeguarding organizations of this musical tradition and who still teach the Ravann – a Mauritian drum and principle instrument of Sega Tipik.

ABAIM also considers itself a development organization, developing the lives of the community through music. On Saturdays, more than 60 children from throughout the island attend. Writing skills and traditional games are taught, children report news of the week during democratic assemblies, conversation can range from recounting birthdays to comments on the Syrian crisis. All in between singing.

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U.S. Fulbright

Beginnings: Making Your First Contact

February 5, 2015

Giuseppe Cespedes, 2011-2012, Fulbright ETA to Brazil (left, with guitar), on his first visit to the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, playing music to his then future students, having a casual conversation (in his initially limited Portuguese), and enjoying some delicious Brazilian pastries

When you are applying for Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant, remember that Fulbright is not solely about assistant teaching English or about doing research; you need to dig deeper. Fulbright was my community in Pontal, a small beach town in the city of Ilhéus, Brazil. It was the place where I made my first group of Brazilian friends, where I learned how to dance forró, and where I practiced capoeira. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, Fulbright placed me at the forefront of my first English class at Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, a state university where students from all across the state of Bahia came to attend. My students, pushed by their curiosity, unabashedly asked me questions about my life and my perspectives on Brazilian culture. I tried my best to answer with my limited Portuguese. I was teaching while being taught. My students were my most encouraging Portuguese teachers, and the more we learned from each other, the closer we became as a group.

My students weren’t always the most confident English speakers, so I thought to incorporate music into the classroom to ease the tension. It started off with simple classroom activities, but it quickly spawned into a small choir of dedicated students with different levels of English. The choir met outside of class hours, performed at one of our campus-wide presentations, and we even recorded a few songs at the university recording studio. The choir wasn’t anything fancy or professional, but the students took to it and – if only for a moment – they sang without being consumed by self-awareness of their pronunciation.

Fulbright made me appreciate my own uniqueness, and it brought me into another culture I would have never otherwise experienced. If you want to be tourist, there are several ways to travel, but if you want to grow within a community, then Fulbright might be for you.

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