ABOUT FULBRIGHT

Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Episode 2, Part 1

Valerie Hymas, Program Manager for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia and Tony Claudino, Director of Fulbright Student Outreach, get advice on applying for a Fulbright grant from Theresa Granza, Director of US Student Programs.

Tony:                Welcome to the Fulbright student program podcast.  We are your hosts. I’m Tony Claudino, director of outreach.

Valerie:             I’m Valerie Hymas, senior program manager for the Fulbright program responsible for world areas Europe, Eurasia, Central Asia… Yes, Tony, I know, it is a mouthful!

Tony:                It is a long title. We’re going to have to change it.

                        In this podcast, we’ll be interviewing Theresa Granza, Director of the U.S. student program.

                        Thank you for coming into our studio, Theresa.  You’ve been running the Fulbright program for a long time now, and we wanted to, on behalf of the people applying to the Fulbright program, we want to pick your brain on some things that you think students should be thinking about when applying for Fulbright.

Valerie:             We’d like to start off with asking you what makes an ideal Fulbright candidate.

Theresa:           There’s no such thing as an ideal Fulbright candidate.  Fulbright candidates come in all shapes and sizes, and are students who have begun to think about what they want to do with their lives, and how they want to shape them.  Students are bachelor’s degree candidates, students are Ph.D. candidates, and anywhere in between.  And they are planning to spend a year overseas, doing something that’s going to shape their lives in the future.

Valerie:             So really this program is for candidates who have an exciting idea that they are passionate about and want to go overseas to accomplish.

Theresa:           Pretty much.  Although it’s also… remember the Fulbright program, this Fulbright program is intended as a cultural exchange program.  And so students don’t necessarily, especially for people who are applying for things like English teaching assistantship programs, don’t need to have an elaborate research plan.  They can be applying to go to teach English, for example, in Spain for a year and to become engaged in the community while they’re there.  They don’t have to propose an in-depth research project, but as an ancillary activity, could propose to volunteer with a community organization, or to take courses at a nearby institution, or do a small research project that they have the capacity to do.

Tony:                Is there preference in any of those orders that you just mentioned, as a mini-Fulbright project?

Theresa:           No.  There’s no preference.  It will... remember a Fulbright application is a package.  Fulbright selections are not based on any one piece of the application, and depending on whether or not it’s a student who’s in the arts or a student who’s doing a TA (English teaching assistantship) or a student who’s doing a Ph.D. dissertation, the level of consideration on each of the pieces of the application varies.  So, for example, a Ph.D. candidate’s project statement is of vital importance to his or her nomination.  A student who’s applying in the arts, especially the performing arts, will be judged very heavily on their talent and potential for development in the future.

Tony:                That means their portfolio, pretty much.

Theresa:           Portfolio, tapes, DVDs, whatever is required for their particular field.  Students who are applying for the (English) teaching assistantships, we’re going to be looking more at their interest in interacting with students in the classroom, what they’ve done to this point to indicate that they have a real interest in teaching, or tutoring, or something of that nature.

Tony:                What degree level do we see the English teaching assistants: bachelors, masters…?

Theresa:           Well, it varies from country to country, but mainly bachelor’s degree candidates in most of the countries, although in some of the countries in South America there’s an interest in entertaining applications from people at the master’s degree level as well.  So, again, it’s a country-driven program.  It’s not one program.  There are 120 countries in the Fulbright (U.S. student) program, and there are 120 different programs, so it’s very difficult to answer anything in a very broad, general way.

Tony:                How about the arts?  Do you see over the years that the arts applications or grants have increased or has it been pretty steady?

Theresa:           No, it’s pretty steady.  We have about 10 percent of our applications in the arts and about 10 percent of grants in the arts as well.  Well, maybe 20 percent.  Actually, it depends on the talent and level of ability of the student who applies, so there’s really no quota on any field or any area of the program.

Valerie:             I have a question, I mean this sort of takes it from the other angle, and that is, is there any advice you’d give or are there any things that you feel candidates do that is a mistake when they apply?   Are there things that they should avoid, for instance?

Theresa:           Well, especially the younger students shouldn’t be proposing projects for which they’re not trained.  They shouldn’t be proposing projects that are too long or that are too complicated for their level of training.  Also, students, when they’re preparing applications, should consider their audience and should think about who is on the screening committees.  We have screening committees that are made up of people who are in various fields, but obviously not every field of study is represented on every committee, and, therefore, students should try to make their applications as intelligible to the general public as possible.  So, avoid jargon, for example, in preparing the application.  And frame the project in the time for which Fulbright is available.  So again, you need to think about the country because each country time is different.  For example some countries have grants that are eight months, some countries have grants that are 12 months.  So if you’re proposing a project for a country where the time limit is 9 months, then you should be able to complete the project in that time.  So those are some little things you should think about.

Tony:                So I have a follow-on question to that.  Let’s say I’m just graduating from college.  My major is English.  And then I want to go into something else.  My field of study I apply in Fulbright would be psychology or something… you want them to stay within something they’re capable of, right?

Theresa:           Absolutely.  I mean if you don’t have training in psychology, you don’t really want to propose a project that, especially in another country and in another language, (by the way you should have the language of the country to which you’re applying), that you haven’t had academic training in.  So it’s more difficult, obviously, to do a project in a field you don’t have training in.  So stick within your area of expertise.

Valerie:             Let’s talk about language for a moment.  What if a candidate is applying, let’s say in hard science or chemistry, biology, and they’re going to be working in a lab, let’s say in Italy, where all of the scientists that they’re going to be working with speak English and will be conducting their work in English.  Is that candidate still… If they speak no Italian or only have basic Italian skills are they… should they not even consider applying or should they go for it given that their project would be feasible because they can speak it in English?

Theresa:           OK.  Generally speaking, there are many countries in Europe now where they don’t require knowledge of the host country language for the purposes of completing a project.  That’s all well and good.  But you still have to live in the country, and you still have to interact with the people.  Therefore, it is contingent upon you to make sure that you have at least a courtesy level of the language before you leave the United States.  Screening committees will look at your applications keeping in mind that you may have another year in order to acquire some of the language before you leave the United States, but is, again, keeping in mind that this is a cultural exchange program, going to be something that the screening committees are going to be looking for and that the Fulbright commissions (or U.S. embassies) in the host countries are going to be looking for, your ability to interact with the people of the country that you’re going to.  Believe me, not everybody speaks English, despite the fact that you may think that’s the case.

Valerie:             Well that’s fantastic. I mean, I think that’s really good insight for the candidates who are thinking that language might be the biggest barrier between them and applying.  So as long as they have a feasible project that they can do but also show the commitment to learning hospitality level of that language, they still might have a shot.

Theresa:           Go for it!

Valerie:             Great.

Tony:                Well, I guess I have one last question and then we can end the interview. The one question I have is, for next year, are the number of grants going up, or are there any new grants in areas that people should be aware of?

Theresa:           We never know exactly how many grants are going to be available.  But we, I think, we anticipate somewhere around 1400 for this year and probably around the same number for next year.  There are some new (English) teaching assistantship programs which will be competed for the first time: the Hong Kong teaching assistants program, and teaching assistantships for Italy.  Both of those will be competed nationally for the first time next year.

Tony:                Well, they’re, Italy was competed nationally in the Spring…

Theresa:           Yeah, but it was a short competition.  It was only announced January with a deadline in March.  So this time it’s a full year so I anticipate that we’ll have significantly higher number of applicants for next year.  And they’ll be 15 awards again, 16 for Hong Kong.  And the other late entry to the competition this year, the Netherlands water management awards will also be competed next year.  The only major change in the program or deletion from the program is the Islamic Civilization awards will no longer be offered although the money for those awards will be still available, mainly to countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.  So the, although the name of the program is going away the intent and the funding for it is not.

Valerie:             Great. Well thank you, Theresa, we very much appreciate your time.

Theresa:           You’re more than welcome.

Tony:                Thank you.

Valerie:             That’s it for this issue of the Fulbright U.S. student episode.  Next week, we will be talking with Joe Livingston, Program Manager for Central America and the Caribbean Regional program.