In keeping with an unusually excellent record, six Wesleyan alumni earned Fulbright grants last year and two graduating seniors were named as alternates for the program. The candidates’ projects run the gamut from teaching English in Uruguay to studying mathematical logic at the University of Paris.
“I really wanted to go abroad to South Korea, the country of my heritage, in order to increase my fluency in the language and really become immersed in the culture,” said current Fellow Gloria Lee ’05, who will act as an English teaching assistant in South Korea this year. “This experience would be perfect, I thought to myself, and I applied.”
Sponsored by the U. S. Department of State, the Fulbright program provides funding for students, scholars and professionals to undertake graduate study, conduct research and teach abroad. According to the organization’s website, the Fulbright Program seeks to “build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.”
This year, the commission received approximately 5,600 applications and awarded over 1,000 grants to U. S. students. Included among those were Sasha Freudenberg ’05, Catesby Holmes ’05, Gwyneth Harrison-Shermoen ’05, Lee, Troy Reinhalter ’05 and Julie Ren ’05. Both Alexander Fischer ’05 and Ingram Weber ’05 were made alternates, should others decline the opportunity.
According to German Studies Professor Krishna Winston, the Fulbright program advisor on campus, any student may send a proposal to the commission. After close work with her, and often multiple drafts of project proposals, the applicants are interviewed on campus by a group of faculty members selected by Winston. Once she transcribes the interviews, the dossiers are sent on to the Institute of International Education in New York, a private organization that administers the Fulbright program.
Winston, who has served as the program advisor since 1979, stressed that the Fulbright is ideal for many students since seriousness of purpose, language skills, feasibility of the project and letters of recommendation are just as important as a student’s grade point average.
“The Fulbright is not exclusively for students with absolutely stellar records,” she said. “It’s a grant that’s within the reach of many Wesleyan students. I try not to say to people, ‘you’re just not a good candidate.’ ”
The variety of projects that Fulbright Fellows pursue shows just how difficult it is to pinpoint a “good” candidate. Harrison-Shermoen is currently enrolled in a masters program at the University of Paris VII. Knowing only that she wanted to go both abroad and to graduate school, her decision to apply reflects an experience as unique as her proposal itself.
“I soon found out about this masters degree in logic at [the] Université Paris VII, and it looked ideal,” said Harrison-Shermoen. “I became very interested in logic at Wesleyan but hadn’t had too much exposure to topics in logic beyond the introductory level. This program will give me that exposure, so I think I will start grad school in the States with a better sense of the direction I want to go in.”
Other students feel less sure about how their status as a Fulbright Fellow will feature later in their life, and instead applied for the benefit of the experience.
“I got interested in the Fulbright in the fall of last year,” said Holmes, who will work as an English teaching assistant in Uruguay this year. “I had won a Dana Grant to work at a newspaper in Argentina the summer before, and I just kind of realized the opportunities that are out there in terms of scholarships. When I went in to talk to Krishna, she urged me in the direction of the teaching fellowship because she said I had the kind of background they look for.”
For Freudenberg, the Fulbright Fellowship is ideal due to the amount of independence it gives him to pursue his own interests.
“I’m taking classes in journalism at the Universidad Catolica de Peru, and doing a study about the political effects of the tabloid press here,” he said. “I’m also trying to use the opportunity to write and publish journalistically, I wrote a piece about the flood in New Orleans which came out today in the Peruvian magazine Caretas.”
Many of the winners site Winston as a key resource.
“Krishna was a huge help throughout the application process,” Holmes said. “She knew what my proposal needed to include, and worked through several drafts with me over the course of many weeks. What I ended up with – the detailed proposal that won – was nothing like the vague, academic one I began with. I think that the very specific nature of my application has a lot to do with why I got the grant.”
Winston explained that she considers the Fulbright application process a unique one for many students due to the lack of exposure and advising they may have had in writing formal grant proposals.
“It’s a genre that most students have little experience with,” she said. “To be able to put forth your ideas concisely and in an engaging way is a real challenge.”
In light of increasing student interest in post-graduate grants, as well as the number of students who decide to apply for the Fulbright after hearing about it from a dean or a professor, Winston hopes to see a consortium of faculty and administrators who would be available to make the application process smoother for students. Moreover, she hopes to continue to diversify the applicant pool: statistically, the University receives fewer applications from students of color.
Applicants who do not receive grants may apply again, something Weber intends to do. In fact, Winston often encourages alumni to apply since their professional experience places them in a better position to clearly articulate their project goals. She also explained that since one may only win a student Fulbright once, the grant is not always the best option for those who intend to attend graduate school and want to apply for a grant then.
Of course, the application is just the beginning. Making the most of the experience is the real challenge.
“I am terrified of: trying to get a bank account and starting my classes ,” Harrison-Shermoen wrote in an e-mail. “As this is a program in a French university, [the classes] will all be in French. I have yet to test my ability to understand a math lecture in French. Somehow, when I was applying for the Fulbright, I convinced myself that this really wouldn’t be a problem. Hopefully I was right.”
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