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Kind
words of advice for future SDSU Fulbright student grantees |
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| Aaron Pratts in Malaysia |
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| Aaron
Pratts, on a U.S. Student Fulbright grant to teach English in Malaysia this
year, has been announced as a finalist for a UNESCO Internship (Communication
and Information) in Paris for next year. Final results will be announced
in May/June. |
SDSU has the potential to have many more SDSU Fulbright Student Grantees
studying, researching, and teaching all over the world for
all the rest of time to come. I am aware the competition for 2006-2007
Fulbright US Student Grant is now closed and I wish the best
to those who have applied. If you all are successful later this year
get ready for a life changing experience. It's going to include a
rush of cultures and languages you thought you were familiar with because
of researching and all, but when you're placed in the local rural community
hours away from anyone you can relate to it's going to be a shock. And
has been the most extreme culture shock I have ever
had on an international experience! This entry will be a few kind words
of advice for any of those with the slightest thought applying for a
Fulbright grant anywhere you heart desires in the world the next opening
competition, which is this May 2006 for grant year 2007-2008.
Utilize
all your resources at SDSU. The wonderful Fulbright advisor, many, if
not most of your previous and current professors, lecturers, different
university program staff members, like the International Student Center
and Associated Students, graduate teaching assistants, and all the like,
are all extremely willing and some times even more excited than you to
help and assist in the wonders of an endeavor to experience more of the
world. It is quite fascinating really. I visited offices of professors
and lecturers I
had classes with back towards my start at SDSU as a freshman in 1999 and
many of them remembered me and were enthusiastic to help me with my goal
of becoming Fulbright US Student Grantee to Malaysia. They
all helped with different things.
After
preparing a draft of your proposal and curriculum vitae or whatever, sleep
on it for a while, make as many edits as you can until
you can do it anymore and your own work starts to look like some foreign
language. After that happens make a bunch of copies, I used
hard copies, and visit everyone you know, asking if they can help you
out. Even if you don't know the people, but have heard or know they
can help, they still probably will. Don't be shy, don't worry, you can
do it! Go into their office hours or catch them before or after
class and let them know what you're doing and before you know it, you'll
have a list of new ideas, amazing letters of recommendation,
and be ready to take on the world.
You
think you can do this all the week before the application deadline? Well,
it may be a little hard and you probably won't sleep for that whole week,
literally not a wink, so instead I suggest you start researching, contacting
people immediately, be aware of the opening and closing dates for the
awards, but take your time and be
patient during the process and also when it's all over. You want to make
sure you have all of your materials sorted out and everything. Once it's
all turned in to the different committees and offices and the deadline
at the end of the week approaches and passes, forget about it for a while,
because its going to go through a very long
process that you really don't have control over. You should find out about
your status in January and June and be excited as you've ever
been in your life. If so you'll be off to some fabulous destination later
that year and whether it's SDSU graduation, graduate school, or
on one of the new Fulbright Student Grant's to Cambodia or Laos some awesome
places here in Southeast Asia it's surely going to be a new
and enriching experience for you.
Anyway, good luck to
all the future SDSU Fulbright Student
grantees for 2006-2007, 2008-2009, and beyond. I know the resources,
knowledge, help, assistance, and pretty much everything anyone needs
to really be successful at anything they want is at SDSU because it<
has the minds that move the world!
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Drew
Fagan |
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First thing to remember is that it is a long process and you should always
have a back-up plan. I didn't find out until June about my acceptance,
and really was not expecting to be accepted that late. Do your homework
about the country before applying. It will help you to understand the
history, social attitudes, and just about everything.
For example, in Slovakia people are quite cold compared to other regions
of the world, and I did not realize why until my Slovak friends explained
to me about how their culture was always repressed my one empire or another
and were always told not to show emotions. Well, this helped me to put
things in perspective. Once you are in the country, become friends with
locals (this goes without saying any time you live abroad, but it is important).
Also, make good contacts with people at either the Fulbright Commission
and/or the American Embassy. They will be able to help you out (e.g. getting
to see the best doctors if you are sick, helping you to organize travel
plans, etc...)
For those who want to teach English, decide what level of English teaching
would interest you most. All countries put their English Teaching Assistants
(ETAs) at different levels of education. For example, Korea has you at
the primary level, the Czech Republic puts you in at the secondary level,
and in Slovakia you are at the university level. It also helps if you
have some sort of Language teaching experience at the level you want to
work at. In my experience, I was given absolutely no guidance and has
to use my past experiences in teaching to help me adjust to my teaching
duties here in Slovakia.
Overall,
remember that it is a full year that you are devoting to the Fulbright.
And it isn't like you will be able to travel every weekend.
There are restrictions to traveling outside of your country which are
enforced to different degrees in different countries. However, there are
no restrictions to traveling within your country, and it is in fact encouraged
for you to do so. Since Slovakia gets extremely cold, I have had to put
off most of my Slovak travel until the spring, but now I am getting ready
to explore the country.If anyone has any
questions, they are more than welcomed to email me at drewfagan05@fulbrightweb.org.
I hope this helps!
Ciao,
Drew
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