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Study/Research grant

U.S. Fulbright

The Lollipops Crown Music and Arts Initiative: Empowering Disadvantaged Youth in Morocco, By Mohsin Mohi-Ud-Din, 2009-2010, Morocco

July 18, 2011

As last year drew to a close, I could not help but feel a longing for what had transpired during my Fulbright grant.  I missed the kids I worked with from three orphanage centers in Morocco.  From the Darna Association, by the beautiful cliffs looking out to Spain from Tangier, to the kids at the Dar Lekbira Association, near Mehdi beach in Kenitra, to the open spaces of Bensaliman, where I worked with young Moroccan artists and the Ministry of Youth on a U.S. Embassy-sponsored event.  I missed the dirt in our hands, the kids’ enduring spirits, their old eyes, their youthful energy and contagious smiles.  Most importantly, I miss their brilliance and creativity.

In Morocco, my Fulbright project used the arts to empower disadvantaged youth on a micro level as a means towards improving the United States’ relationship with the Muslim world on a macro level.  The project became the Lollipops Crown Music and Arts Initiative.

I had applied for a Fulbright grant three times.  On my first attempts, it was difficult to overcome the disappointment of rejection, but with each successive try, I became increasingly aware of what I wanted to actually do.  More importantly, I designed a project that I truly believed in — regardless of whether or not I received a Fulbright grant.  In my application, I designed a blueprint for an endeavor that meant more to me than simply getting the grant.  The project sought to make an impact in a Moroccan community.  From that basic premise, I was able to get local support from orphanages in Morocco. That grassroots support was vital to the project’s implementation and to winning a Fulbright grant.

Once I was awarded a Fulbright grant, I had a limited idea of what I was getting myself into but I knew why I was going to do it.  First, as a Muslim-American, I thought it was important for Muslims in the West to go to developing Muslims countries, live and work in them, learn from them, and share skills as means of fostering mutual understanding between one another’s societies.  Currently, there seem to be increasing fissures between Muslims in the West and Muslims in the developing world.  These fissures will only inhibit the greater Muslim World’s ability to silence extremists and for societies to progress spiritually and intellectually.  Secondly, I thought it essential to use the arts to bridge the East-West divide between non-Muslim-Americans and Muslims in the East.  Thirdly, I wanted to show how the arts are one of the few existing avenues to deconstruct myths held by different social classes, religions, countries, and cultures.  The arts show us that no civilization is monolithic.  They demonstrate that there is no one way to be Muslim, no one way to be human, and despite our diverse paths, the arts can unify us.  The arts remind us of the collective humanity to which we equally belong.  Lastly, I wanted to showcase how the arts can empower disadvantaged youth who otherwise have no space to address and express their grievances, dreams, and where they want to be.  I wanted to create a space for creative and critical thinking as well as innovation.  Spaces for such development are lacking for many youth in developing Muslim countries.  This fuels a toxic combination of helplessness and humiliation that exacerbates today’s cultural and geopolitical challenges.  As I have discovered, the talent, creativity, innovation and drive are there.  Yet the outlets, resources, and most importantly, the state and societal support, are somewhat weak.

Through the Lollipops Crown Music and Arts Initiative, we were able to create a pilot youth arts education program that enabled disadvantaged children in Morocco to write, direct, film, and act in their own short stories about their hardships and dreams.  The initiative additionally led music workshops teaching kids how to read music.  I partnered with the U.S Embassy in Rabat in leading music workshops for the Ministry of Youth in Bensaliman .  My band, Zerobridge based in NYC, led a tour of workshops for Arab youth across Morocco also sponsored and organized by the U.S Embassy in Rabat.  The project left its mark in the culmination of a widely attended screening of all of the kids’ short films at the beautiful and historic Cinéma Rif Theater in Tangier.

When I left Morocco over a year later in March 2010, the last kids I saw were my group from the Dar Lekbira Orphanage.  They were the first group of kids I met and worked with, so it was only fitting to say goodbye to them last.  They changed my life, and from what they told me, the arts initiative gave them a little something to look forward to and confidence to hold on to.  The initiative instilled awareness in them that there are spaces within us that are meant to be discovered: be they spaces for creativity, spaces for innovation, or even spaces for forgiveness.  We cried together as I left.  The kids pulled lint, coins and bracelets from their torn clothes and gave them to me as mementos.  I will never forget them and the films, music and connections we created and discovered.

One of the toughest things I have ever done was to turn my back to the orphans and leave.  As I walked at night on a dirt road, I saw their faces pressed against the windows.  A train roared by to break the silence.  There was a full moon in the Kenitra sky.  The next night, I’d be looking at the moon from a plane.  And it was in this parting moment that it hit me.  Through the Lollipops Crown Music and Arts Initiative, we moved mountains.  Despite the frustration, hunger, drugs, poverty and the broken families these orphans live every day, the creative spark and love we discovered through the arts helped us to overcome helplessness and hopelessness.  We rose above them.  Music, film, and art are avenues for true listening, understanding, and empowerment.  As a Muslim-American who worked in Muslim-Arab country, I can say that the arts, not just politics, are real diplomatic tools in which the U.S. should continue to invest.  The Fulbright Program, and its support of artistic projects, is so vital because it enables cultural and academic spaces to be created: interaction through people-to-people diplomacy, eye-to-eye, drum-to-drum, brush-to-brush, pen-to-paper, and hearts-to-minds.  Programs for educational and cultural exchange, such as the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Program, continue to provide a platform from which meaningful relationships with other nations and people-to-people diplomacy can be achieved.  The street kids, social workers, artists, and Moroccan people changed my life.  Together, through my Fulbright project, we moved more than mountains.  The Fulbright Program and State Department helped us to do this.

This summer, I will continue engaging in the cultural diplomacy started during my Fulbright project and implement a similar project for youth at an orphanage in South Asia’s embattled region of Kashmir, India.  The orphanage is called CHINAR.  These workshops will work on eroding the trust deficit between America and the Muslim world through arts education, empowerment, and communication.

Here are some tips to think about when starting your Fulbright application for a study or research project:

  • First, think of a project that relates to enhancing educational exchange or cultural diplomacy between the U.S .and other nations.   It should be something you are passionate about and something that will enhance your career.
  • Identify a country that has a specific need for your project idea or research interests.
  • Your Fulbright project does not have to be strictly limited to development or academic research.  The Fulbright Program welcomes applications in all fields of study – including the arts, professional fields and sciences.
  • Research and share your idea with institutions or non-governmental organizations that are in the country you’d like to work in.  Securing a host affiliation is best done well in advance of finishing your application. Once you are awarded a Fulbright grant, plan to be flexible and patient in getting your original idea off the ground.  It took me months to get the results and access I needed. It takes time to build trust and partnership networks.  But, if your project is something you believe in, you will get there!
  • If you don’t get the Fulbright, do not be discouraged.  I applied three times!  I tweaked my idea several times and grew more passionate about implementing the right project at the right time.  Don’t give up!

Photo: Mohsin Mohi-Ud-Din, 2009-2010, Morocco

Questions for Mohsin about his Fulbright experiences?  Feel free to email him at MMohi-Ud-Din.AlumniAmbassador@fulbrightmail.org.

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My Time with the Bleeding-Heart Baboons: An Ethiopian Fulbright Experience, By David Joseph Pappano, 2010-2011, Ethiopia

July 5, 2011

Most people have the same image of all primates. This generic ape or monkey swings through the trees, eats bananas and lives in a small social group of about 20-30 individuals. Few people imagine monkeys that sleep on sheer cliffs. Even fewer folks think a primate could eat grass. And only a handful of people have ever observed over 1,000 wild primates living together in a single social group. Through my Fulbright grant, I had the fortune of spending time with a peculiar primate species that exhibits all three of these behaviors. During a 10-month stay in Ethiopia, I studied the behavior of geladas (Theropithecus gelada).

Geladas are known by their nickname, the “bleeding heart baboon.” Geladas are not, however, true baboons. While baboons eat meat, fruit, and nuts, geladas are the only primate species to feed nearly entirely on grass (over 90% of their diet). Their “bleeding heart baboon” nickname comes from the unique bare patch of skin located on the chest and neck of both male and female geladas. In females, this patch changes color from light pink to deep red with beaded vesicles and is thought to be a visual indicator of estrous. The male chest patch is likely a sexually selected signal, as chest color varies across males and is associated with dominance status.

My Fulbright grant allowed me to conduct dissertation research on the social and hormonal factors that influence bachelor geladas’ behavior living in all-male groups. In these groups, males may form bonds with other males that may persist through adult life. Young bachelors are often smaller than dominant leader males and may cooperate to overthrow leaders in order to mate with females. My research examines the nature of these relationships, particularly if young males are more likely to cooperate with their buddies when fighting leader males. Additionally, I collected feces to understand stress hormone level variation among bachelor males. These data will allow me to understand the relationship between stress and social bonding among male geladas, and is important for an understanding of how human friendships evolved.

While geladas may have been the primate of interest for my thesis, they were not the only primates involved in my Fulbright experience. I worked closely with many humans as well during my time in Ethiopia. Since I worked at Simien Mountains National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), I lived with the park scouts and their families. I worked with a field assistant, Esheti Jejaw, and trained him in various scientific methods. In turn, he taught me how to speak Amharic, make injera (traditional Ethiopian bread), and navigate the cliffs of the Simien Mountains. Finally, my relationship with the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa allowed me to speak to high school students about my research and conserving Ethiopian biodiversity. I hope that at least one of these students pursues a future in wildlife biology, but I’ll settle for eco-minded doctors, lawyers, and future leaders of Ethiopia.

  • If you are interested in applying for a Fulbright study/research grant, I recommend you always be mindful of the Fulbright Program’s mission to promote mutual understanding between the U.S. and the people of other countries. Find creative ways to incorporate this into your research plan, even if you study plants, birds, or primates. You should be foremost an intellectual ambassador, and secondarily, a researcher.
  • If you are currently at a university, seek out faculty members that have had Fulbright experiences. Get to know them and ask them for reference letters. Do not think, however, that having a recommendation from a Fulbright alumnus guarantees a grant. It is far more important to have recommenders that know you both personally and academically.
  • Finally, your research proposal should be something that can be accomplished within an academic year. Think of it as the first step to a larger project that incorporates the Fulbright Program’s goals. You cannot cure diseases or save entire ecosystems in less than a year, but you can make significant progress and impact lives that will last well beyond your grant tenure.

Top photo: David Joseph Pappano, 2010-2011, Ethiopia (left), with his field assistant, Esheti Jejaw

David Joseph Pappano, 2010-2011, Ethiopia, speaking to high school students about his Fulbright research at the “Yes Youth Can!” conference held at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa on April 30, 2011

A male gelada looks out over the Simien Mountains, Ethiopia

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U.S. Fulbright

The Role of the Spanish Constitutional Court in Shaping Immigrants’ Rights in Spain, By Cris Ramón, 2008-2009, Spain

May 11, 2011

In September 2008, I arrived in Madrid to study the legal rights of immigrants in Spain.  Much like Ireland and Italy, immigrants’ rights have become a major political and legal issue in Spain given the recent growth of its immigrant population.  For my Fulbright project, I analyzed the legal impact of seven sentences that the Spanish Constitutional Court issued against the Ley Orgánica 8/2000, a reform of Spain’s main immigration law.  The reform, which was introduced by center-right Partido Popular in 2000, stated that immigrants could not exercise certain constitutional rights such as the right to public assembly.  In 2007, the Court declared these provisions unconstitutional because they deny individuals Constitutional rights guaranteed to all.

My research focused on determining whether these sentences prompted legislators to further expand immigrants’ rights in additional law reforms.  I interviewed immigration attorneys, law professors, politicians from Spain’s main political parties, and non-governmental organization and labor union representatives.  I intended to understand how judicial and political concerns had shaped the original law.  I discovered that while legislators fulfilled the Court’s mandate to remove the unconstitutional provisions, political concerns regarding the Spanish economic crisis led them to restrict other fundamental rights to control the influx of immigrants.  In other words, political factors continued to limit immigrants’ legal rights despite the Court’s efforts to expand them.

In addition to my research, I worked with six fellow Fulbrighters, also studying immigration in Spain, to organize a conference titled, From Emigration to Immigration: Seven American Perspectives on Immigration in Spain.  It was a success on several levels.   We had a standing room only crowd, and an engaging discussion took place about how the United States and Spain can help each other improve their ability to assimilate immigrants.  Planning and executing this conference was definitely one of the highlights of my Fulbright grant!

The most fulfilling aspect of my time in Spain, however, was that my appreciation of immigrant aspirations, like those that inspired my parents to move to the United States, deepened based on conversations that I had with Spaniards I met and with whom I worked.  Since most probably hadn’t previously interacted with the American son of Salvadoran immigrants, these interactions became an opportunity to explain how my family’s story reflected the common immigrant aspiration to move to the United States in search of a better life.  Some Spaniards shared their own family’s emigrant history during and after the Spanish Civil War.  These conversations helped me to understand how powerful shared or similar experiences can be in connecting people.  My Fulbright grant has not only helped me feel more connected to Spain’s history of emigration and immigration, but also to my family’s own story.

Two pieces of advice for applicants pursuing study/research grants:

  • You’re a young professional with no immediate plans to attend grad school?  Apply!

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program welcomes applications from all individuals who are U.S. citizens and have at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, including young professionals who aren’t in grad school or currently enrolled in an academic program.  If you want to carry out research in a specific country, review the Fulbright Country Summaries to see if the country to which you’re applying prefers applicants who haven’t completed a graduate degree.  Also, make sure to get in touch with your alma mater to find out if they would be willing to assist with your At-Large application. Many college and universities will also accept alumni applicants for the on-campus competition.

  • With a little effort, finding a host affiliation is absolutely possible.

Fulbright applicants without a research affiliation in their chosen country can be creative about finding one.   My undergrad professors and I did not have any academic contacts with law professors in Madrid, so I went through the faculty sites of every major university in Madrid and emailed a copy of my preliminary proposal to professors specializing in immigration law.  I received a response from my future advisor, Diego, within 24 hours.  While this specific approach won’t work everywhere, it is one of many possibilities for making contacts abroad.

Photo: Cris Ramón, 2008-2009, Spain (top row, right) with six fellow Fulbrighters who collaborated on the From Emigration to Immigration: Seven American Perspectives on Immigration in Spain conference: (Top row, left to right) Jesse Feinberg, Marisa Diaz, Oscar Perez de La Fuente (Professor of Philosophy at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Alexandra Hinojosa; (Bottom row, left to right) Nicole Nfonoyim, Peter Holderness, and Michelle Dezember.

Questions for Cris about his Fulbright experiences?  Feel free to email him at CRamon.AlumniAmbassador@fulbrightmail.org.

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The Dutch Method for Improving Army Aeromedical Operations: Highlights from a Fulbright Fellow in Engineering, By Nathaniel Bastian, 2008-2009, The Netherlands

April 7, 2011

Fulbright Fellow to MEDEVAC Pilot; Nathaniel D. Bastian, 2008-2009, The Netherlands

After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, I headed to the Netherlands in August 2008 to begin my Fulbright grant pursuing a master’s degree in econometrics and operations research at Maastricht University. As a Fulbright Fellow, I researched and developed a model to help Army medical planners optimize aeromedical evacuation helicopter positioning and improve air ambulance systems.

I will never forget my first course. We started with chapter thirty-four of a textbook in which I hadn’t learned the material from the first thirty-three chapters. This introduction to the Dutch education system proved to be quite humbling. Nonetheless, my interaction with Dutch students and professors greatly enriched my experience because they were intelligent and hard-working team players. Maastricht University uses an innovative, unique teaching approach known as Problem-Based Learning, where students work and learn in small tutorial groups as opposed to lecture halls. By closely interacting with both Dutch and international students, I learned how to exchange knowledge and information effectively, analyze complex problems, collect pertinent data, and formulate and present collective solutions. This exposure to the Dutch learning method challenged me to be personally responsible for my education and created an environment that allowed me to become a more effective researcher.

Aside from working with Dutch students and professors, I immersed myself in Dutch culture by participating in events such as Carnival (a week-long festival in Maastricht involving locals wearing costumes, singing and dancing in the streets to live music) and Koninginnesdag (a day of national unity in Amsterdam where people wear the color orange and celebrate the Queen of the Netherlands’ birthday). Besides these fun cultural events, my travels to places such as historical battle sites in Nijmegen, tulip gardens at Keukenhof, stinky cheese factories in Gouda and museums in Amsterdam truly helped me to develop a profound understanding of Dutch culture.

Not only did these experiences change my perceptions of Dutch culture, but I believe my interactions with the Dutch whom I worked with and met changed their perceptions of Americans. As my Fulbright Program took place during our riveting 2008 presidential election and the global economic recession, I had many intriguing conversations and debates with the Dutch about American foreign policy, economics and health care. Additionally, I made lasting impressions as a soldier, officer and aviator in the U.S. Army because I shared my various experiences in the military.

From my experiences as a Fulbright Fellow, here is some advice for future applicants:

  • Formulate a research proposal on a topic about which you are most passionate. Incorporate how your findings will make a difference stateside and abroad.
  • Select reference writers who truly know your personality, intellectual aptitude and leadership ability.
  • In your personal statement, share your life story and how it relates to your proposed research.
  • Seek guidance from mentors, and be prepared to work through many essay revisions.

Trying Dutch clogs on for size; Nathaniel D. Bastian, 2008-2009, The Netherlands

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U.S. Fulbright

All the Way to Timbuktu, By Casey Scieszka, 2007-2008, Mali

March 31, 2011

Casey Scieszka, 2007-2008, Mali, with neighborhood friends in Bamako

The first word I learned in the Malian language Bambara was toubab. I must have heard it a hundred times a day, called out to me by children playing with sticks in the street, store-owners having tea on the corner, women pounding millet with babies tied to their backs.

Roughly, it means “whitey.”

There was no way I, the American hodgepodge of northern European ancestors, was ever going to blend in over in West Africa. Not even once I started wearing the local clothes or speaking the language or eating with my hands.

Slowly but surely though, each of the three times I settled into a new neighborhood (in Bamako then Timbuktu then Segou), I heard the word less and less. As I learned all of my neighbors’ names, they started learning mine. Exchanging greetings and names turned into exchanging bits of news, which turned into hanging out under mango trees during 120 degree afternoons, which eventually turned into friendship.

That is where the Fulbright Program does its best work.

Beyond this interpersonal connection, I enjoyed my formal research. I looked at the role of Islam in the education system, which meant that I spent my days doing observations in different kinds of classrooms, interviewing teachers and principals, having conversations with parents and students. I learned a lot about the politics of language, about the perceived differences in moral versus academic education, about finger-pointing and about the effects of decentralization. But all of that academic research would have been missing its real pulse if the Fulbright Program hadn’t allowed for the time and freedom to become a part of the community as well. Issues that I came across in my research became crystallized in the more personal experiences of my new friends and neighbors. Sure, I knew that most Malian girls don’t make it past 6th grade; but that figure meant so much more to me once my neighbors started talking about whether or not it was worth the money to send their twelve-year-old daughter Saran to school anymore.

It’s hard to remember what I even thought of Mali before I lived there. I knew it was hot, had produced some amazing musicians like Ali Farka Touré, and was home to the ever mysterious Timbuktu. Now though, for me, Mali is made up of familiar faces; faces with names, homes, families, favorite foods, favorite songs, jokes, grievances, desires. Mali is now the people that I met.

Hopefully, the vision of America now has one more face to the Malians I met—mine. Americans are too often generalized as loud and uncaring, greedy, rich, and unskilled in foreign language. I did my best to be my best: to listen, to learn, to give in the ways that I could.

The formal results of my experience were my Fulbright report (which helped members of USAID decide to fund specific foreign language programs in private religious schools they were previously very wary of), the nonprofit I went on to co-found (Local Language Literacy, which is dedicated to creating, printing and distributing books in local languages like Bambara to students free of charge), and the illustrated book To Timbuktu about my two years living in Asia and West Africa that came out at the beginning of this March.

To Timbuktu was a fantastic way to take my Fulbright experience and get it into the hands of a wider audience, to put Mali on the map for more Americans, and to stay in touch with the places and people that had become so dear to me.

My boyfriend and I just went back to Mali this past January—exactly three years since we left at the end of my Fulbright. And sure, when we got out of the taxi, we were bombarded by cries of “Eh Toubab!” But the closer we got to our old home, the more we started hearing calls of “Fatimata! Salif!” And those aren’t other words for “whitey.”  They’re our Malian names.

For more information about the nonprofit Local Language Literacy, please visit locallanguageliteracy.org.

For more information about Casey’s book, please visit allthewaytotimbuktu.com.

 

  • Keep repeating to yourself: “Feasibility! Feasibility!” Don’t set yourself up to do some kind of country-wide survey all alone. Be realistic about what one person can look into, how long it will take you, and what you yourself are especially qualified to do/will enjoy doing.

 

  • Look into as many potential affiliates as possible. It’s often really hard to track people down from abroad. Some of these people you contact may not wind up being your official affiliate but could be wonderful people to meet up with once you’re in the country, nonetheless.

 

  • Leave some room for your research to change. That’s one of the best parts of doing a project like this: you have a plan; you do some work and meet some people, learn something new, and wind up going in a direction you might not have anticipated.

 

  • Contact every friend-of-a-friend in that country you possibly can. They might be able to tell you things your r esearch from home can’t, they might have friends who can be your affiliates, and they might even offer to host you when you first arrive! Having a tiny bit in common can go a surprisingly long way when you’re far from home.
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Making Recycling Their Bag: China’s War on Plastic Bags, By Mary O’Loughlin, 2009-2010, China

January 26, 2011

On September 2, 2009, I arrived in Wuhan, China to begin my Fulbright research on Chinese environmental public policy.  Arguably the biggest city in the world that few have ever heard of, Wuhan is a 10-million person metropolis located in central China on the Yangtze River.  As the only city occupying both banks of China’s longest river, its location on the Yangtze has long ensured its importance as a production and transit point connecting the eastern and western portions of the country. In recent decades, Wuhan has become particularly well-known as a steel and manufacturing center as well as an educational hub.

While in Wuhan, I studied China’s environmental policy through the lens of its policy on plastic bags.  The inspiration for this seemingly obscure research topic was that on June 1, 2008, the Chinese government introduced a nationwide ban on the free distribution of plastic bags in retail outlets.  According to this ban, any Chinese store that wanted to offer its customers a plastic bag would have to charge them for it.  This policy’s introduction represented an important effort to reduce plastic waste in China and a means to promote environmental awareness.  A “price tag” was literally going to be associated with material consumption involving plastic bags.  My Fulbright research sought to evaluate the implementation, enforcement, and effects of this policy.

Thanks to the Fulbright Program, I had the opportunity to explore China’s application of this new environmental regulation firsthand.  My research involved interviewing local shopkeepers and customers about their initial reactions to the bag policy, meeting with Chinese environmental experts (and discussing plastic bag usage in China with them), and collecting quantitative data and observational research about Chinese plastic bag consumption.  By having a unique opportunity to be on the ground and “in-country,” I was able to witness firsthand how the government implemented its policy and the population’s response.  Through my study, I have come to better understand and appreciate the practical implementation and enforcement limits associated with even the most well-intentioned Chinese environmental law.

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