Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast
Transcript For: mtvU Grantees talk to Tony Claudino
October 02, 2008
mtvU Grantees discuss their expectations for the Fulbright experience with Tony Claudino.
mtvU
Tony: Welcome to My Fulbright Life.
Today in New York
we have the Fulbright mtvU grantees that are about to begin this fall, the
08-09 year. So we have with me Alexis, going to France, Melissa, going to Uganda, Ainsley, going to New Zealand, right? Spenser, not
leaving yet, but soon to be in Mali,
and Katie, actually going soon to Mexico. Welcome!
All
in chorus: Thank you!
Tony: Before we begin this My
Fulbright podcast with the mtvU Fulbright grantees, I wanted to talk a little
bit about the background of the program. First off the deadline, that’s
probably the most important piece of information. The deadline is not in the
fall, it will be March 1,
2009. So if you are interested in the Fulbright-mtvU award then
bear in mind it is a different deadline than the standard Fulbright US Student
deadline. In terms of a little bit of background about the program, applicants
are encouraged to consider all aspects of the power of music in developing
their proposal. You’ll see from our website and the mtvU website that the
applications come in a wide variety of countries they go to and different kinds
of experiences. Along with the study of music in specific cultural context,
proposals will be considered in other related musical fields: music and social
activism, music and learning, music and the community, and musical performance.
And now let’s here what some of our Fulbright grantees are about to embark upon
for the coming year.
Tony: Great. Since… who’s leaving
first?
Katie: I am.
Tony: Katie’s leaving first. So tell
us a little bit about your project, since you leaving first.
Katie: I’m going to Mexico to hang out with young
Mexicans who are learning all different kinds of Mexican music. And the way I’m
focusing this project is on pre-rock music. So, it’s not necessarily
traditional music, it’s not necessarily folk music, but it’s everything that
people were playing and singing in Mexico before rock ‘n roll arrived.
Tony: Cool. Are you going to be in Mexico City, or where are you going to be in Mexico?
Katie: I’ll be in Mexico City for the first half of the year
and then Vera Cruz for the second half. And both are epicenters of all
different kinds of Mexican music so they seemed like a good choice for studying
as many different kinds of Mexican music as I can.
Tony: The question that I always get
from potential applicants is how do I create a project or… basically I’m
listening to you thinking, how did you create your project?
Katie: Well, it started with a strong
interest, I guess, and a passion for Mexican music, which is still new for me.
I was living in a mostly Mexican neighborhood in Chicago and hearing all different kinds of
sounds that I wasn’t used to. I mean, I used to think, oh, Mexican music is
mariachi music. But then I started to hear all different kinds, like the son
jarocho and the danzon which are really vibrant, really exciting, and just
really groovy sounds. A lot of them have Afro and Cuban roots and some
indigenous roots as well and you’ve got Spanish influences, and more recently
you’ve got more modern influences and western influences. So there’s just so
many different kinds of amazing music that I thought if I could learn more abut
these and expose my peers to this different kind of music, maybe that would
help Mexicans and people from the United States understand each other’s
cultures a little bit better.
Tony: Cool. What are some things
you’re looking forward to?
Katie: I’m looking forward to studying,
to learning to play some of these kinds of music. I’m a musician and my parents
are folk musicians, so I’m looking forward to learning some guitar, and I also
love to sing, so—I love the way vocals come across in all the different kinds
of Mexican music I’ve heard. They’re really passionate, really powerful songs.
A lot of songs about heart break, and love and cheating and all kinds of themes
that are just fun so-
Tony: A lot of soap opera themes.
Katie: A lot of soap opera stuff. So I’m
looking forward to singing and playing my heart out and learning along with
Mexican people, kind of my age, how to do it.
Tony: And blogging…
Katie: And blogging, yes.
Tony: And we’ll be seeing you- where
can we find more about you? Do you know?
Katie: mtvu.com!
Tony: Alright, who’s going next? Ahh.
Alexis. Great. Tell us a little bit about your project.
Alexis: OK, I’m going to France, I’m going to be staying in Paris and I’m researching
French hip-hop and more specifically, it’s relationship to the 2005 riots, the
recent Presidential election, and also looking at how young people use hip-hop
to explore their cultural identities.
Tony: So how did you come up with your
project?
Alexis: Well, it actually started a couple
of years ago with a conversation I had in Paris.
In the summer of 2005 I was there just on vacation and I met some young people
who were trying to explain about some of the problems and some of the issues
that young minorities and just young people in the French suburbs were having
with their communities and the State and I really didn’t understand it fully what
they were talking about until I returned back to school and that fall there
were riots in the suburbs after two young kids died. One was of North African
descent and the other was of West African descent. And the suburbs kind of
erupted into a lot of violence and anger. And I really reflected back on my
conversations that I’d had about this and wanted to learn more. And the friends
that I’d met actually rapped and a lot of their music discussed what was going
on and I found out that hip-hop played a huge role in the riots. On the one
hand different members of parliament were trying to sue rappers, saying that
they had incendiary lyrics and they were the ones who caused it. And on the
other hand, a lot of journalists were saying that these rappers were very
prophetic and that their lyrics really gave insight into this world that a lot
of people had, until then, really ignored. And then building on that, the
presidential elections in 2007, hip-hop also played a big role with a lot of
rappers writing voting guides, having concerts, and trying to support different
presidential candidates to really help people in the suburbs get their voices
heard. So, I did a lot of research in this through my university, and I saw the
Fulbright-mtvU award, found out about it, thought that it would be a perfect
segue to continue my research.
Tony: Great. I’m just wondering how
the influence of rap in the US
presidential elections, if you’re going to be talking about that to the French.
Alexis: I do want to. I definitely for the
first couple of months while I’m there, since I won’t be in the states looking
at the election, I definitely want to cover it while I’m in France. I definitely want to look
at how- I know young people and a lot of French people in general from all
different backgrounds and age groups and locations are really excited about
this upcoming election so I plan to do some coverage on how the hip-hop
community and young people are also looking at the US elections.
Tony: Cool. I had one more question.
What are some things that you’re looking forward to? Or nervous about? You
know, we can be open- we’re one big happy family.
Alexis: I’ve done some research in France
but I’m really excited about being able to stay there for an extended amount of
time and really just making more friends and being able to explore different
communities that really haven’t had much of a voice. In France the suburbs are
kind of equivalent to what in America we would consider to be our inner cities,
they’re generally poorer, they’re not as wealthy or as known about as the
center of Paris and all of its landmarks and culture. So, I just want to
really- I look forward to giving a voice to a lot of these young people who
have been using hip hop so far to gain that voice and using this
Fulbright-mtvU, they have a much bigger outlet for the international community.
Tony: I can’t wait to be reading the
blog and listening.
Alexis: Thank you.
Tony: So who’s next? I guess Spencer-
take it away.
Spencer: I’m Spencer, I’m going to Mali.
I’m probably leaving in early November. Until then I’m going to be preparing
myself by working at a non-profit called AfroPov Worldwide. It can be found
online at afropov.org.
Tony: Nice little plug there.
Spencer: I’m going to Mali to look at how the recent
shift to democracy has affected the music scene. I’m going to hopefully be
working mostly with guitarists, but we’ll see what happens when I’m there. My
interests are actually in guitar music, so it’d be great to do a lot of
recording and also to learn a lot of guitar styles on my own. That’s kind of my
motivation for going as well.
Tony: Cool. What are some things that
you’re looking forward to or nervous about?
Spencer: It’s my first time in Africa, so I’m a little nervous about that but I’m also
very excited because it’s my first time. I’m looking forward to playing a lot
of music, hearing a lot of great music. Mali is known for its amazing music
scene so I’m really looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to getting my
feet wet recording. I’m really getting into that. I’ve taken a couple of
classes, but I haven’t really had the kind of experience that I’m looking for
with this mtvU-Fulbright opportunity so it should be a great time.
Tony: Question. How did you come up
with a project? Cause you know that the listeners, potential applicants are
like, “How do I develop a project?” So you know, obviously, Alexis got it at a
café in France, but since
you haven’t been to Mali…
Spencer: Well when I was in school I had to do
a research project on development and democracy. Along the way I came across a
book called In Griot Time that was
about Mali and I actually started reading that and I slowly got interested in a
project with guitar music and Mali and democracy and decided maybe I could take
that to the next level and it seems to have worked out.
Tony: Great. Alright, we’re down to
two.
Melissa: So my name is Melissa Adams, and
I’ll be going to Uganda
to work on a project that uses hip-hop as a form of play therapy for children
that are living in war affected areas and have suffered from the trauma of war.
Cause in the northern part of Uganda,
there’s been a war going on for the past 20 years and it’s Africa’s
longest running war and there’s use of child soldiers. Eighty percent of the
rebel army is made up of children that have been abducted and forced to fight
against their will. Part of trying to help these kids overcome the trauma of
the war is through play therapy, which is using all types of different
activities to just allow the kids to be children again. And one piece of play
therapy that I’ve been working on is what we’re calling hip-hop therapy, which
is using positive elements of hip-hop culture which these kids are already
drawn to and interested in and curious about to provide some activities and fun
for them. And therapy.
Tony: How did you come up with the
project? It sounds fascinating.
Melissa: Well, I first traveled to Uganda
in 2004 through my work for a non-profit organization where I was doing HIV
prevention research. And I went to the northern part of the country and met up
with a woman named Jolly Okot who was abducted herself as a child, nearly 20
years ago, was a child soldier for 2 years and then when she got out, after
working for different non-profit organizations she decided to start her own
organization because she realized that what helped her overcome the trauma of
being a child soldier was being able to play and have a couple of hours a day
to be a kid. One of the programs that her organization provides is play therapy
which has all types of different activities and one day she mentioned to me
that the kids in her program were requesting a hip-hop class, a hip-hop dance
class. And they were really interested in hip-hop music and hip-hop culture and
that they’d been asking her for this. So I decided to try to help her cause I
have an interest in hip-hop music and culture and had been interested in
supporting her organization because I saw what incredible work she was doing in
terms of working with these kids. So I wrote a couple of proposals, got some
funding to get some teachers, break dance teachers, to travel up to the
northern part of the country and teach the kids break dancing and also focus on
really providing skills to some of the older kids so they could continue the
classes when the teachers had to go back to their own hometowns.
Tony: How many kids are you looking
at?
Melissa: Now there’s over 50 kids that are
participating in the program, and it keeps growing. At first with some of the
older kids, and now the younger kids are 5-6 have seen the older kids break
dancing and they’re interested in it and so they’ve started participating so
the number keeps increasing. And it’s really provided some interesting
opportunities for the children because the French Embassy was one of the groups
that I was able to get money from to help us with this project. He traveled up
to the northern part of the country, saw the class, was so impressed with the
kids and their dancing, invited them to the capital to perform. And so the
children have had opportunities to travel to other parts of the country and interact
with other kids because as a result of the war they’ve been very isolated, both
physically and socially and so through hip-hop, through break dancing they’ve
had the opportunity to interact with other kids that they normally wouldn’t
have had. So I was interested in building on this project just cause I’ve seen
through anecdotal evidence how successful it seems to be with the children and
helping them with their self esteem. One of the girls participating in the
project was telling me how nervous she was because they were going to be
traveling to the capital and she was nervous about competing against the city
kids. And then she said, but we were the best! We were so good! And you could
just see on her face just this pride that she had. So I wanted to go back and
be able to do more formal research and see really what the effect has been, how
we can strengthen it and continue to help these kids.
Tony: Sounds great. I was going to ask
you what you’re looking forward to but you just answered that.
Alright, last but not
least- go head Ainsley.
Ainsley: My name is Ainsley and I will be
going to New Zealand
to study the Maori Music Initiative. There’s been kind of a cultural
renaissance of Maori culture and I’m going to be following two big Maori music
events throughout the year and make kind of a behind the scenes rockumentary
video of those events.
Tony: Rockumentary. Great!You’re going
to post everything on the blog right?
Ainsley: Yes, everything will be on the blog.
Please watch them.
Tony: How did you come up with your
project?
Ainsley: I studied abroad in New Zealand.
I was fortunate enough to go there before and just took a Maori leadership
class and Maori language class for fun and just became enamored with the
culture and how much it’s changed in the past 10 years at least. So rapidly
it’s become really popular and very recognized for its value to New Zealand
society. So I wanted to go back and see more how music specifically has really played
a huge role in the resurgence.
Tony: Anything you’re nervous about
going back? What are you looking forward to?
Ainsley: I am so excited to be going back. I
think before it was still just a semester abroad and I still felt very much
like an American student doing a semester abroad. So I’m excited to really get
into the culture and be a little more involved, really understand it, be a part
of it.
Tony: Cool. I have one question for
all of you which is, all the projects sound great, and I think I could probably
stay home and try to create one as well, but what it comes down to is
affiliation. In the Fulbright application you have to find an organization to
affiliate with or partner with and that usually ends up being the biggest
hurdle for applicants because they don’t know where to begin or they don’t know
how to find one. So I wanted to know if you wanted to share how you found your
affiliation with your project or anything along those lines. Anyone want to
jump in?
It sounds, Melissa, like
you have your affiliation all set, done.
Melissa: Yeah, cause I’d already been working
with this organization, volunteering with them. So they became the host
affiliation. So it was pretty easy, straightforward.
Tony: Perfect, alright you have a pass
on this question. Anyone else? Go head.
Alexis: I’m Alexis, and I was a French
major at my university and so I asked my department representative, who was
French, if he had any recommendations and he had a friend, a professor at the
University of Rhode Island, who edited a book about French hip-hop; it was the
first anthology of French hip-hop essays that had been translated into English,
and it’s kind of ironic cause I had been using it for my independent work, and
that guy gave me a couple of names and the first person I contacted was super
excited and wrote me a letter of recommendation, and offered me access to his
studios, and his school, and his classes, so I’d say ask your professors and
anybody who has a contact in that country.
Tony: Cool. Anyone else want to jump
in?
Spencer: I did something similar- this is
Spencer. I contacted a professor who contacted another professor at a different
university who then got me in touch with some of their students who then got me
in touch with some of their friends who then got me in touch with a university.
Tony: Sounds like you did a linked in
kind of thing, right?
Spencer: Yeah! So, really, I mean, I was just
kind of forwarded. I got a few good emails going and I started talking to as many
people as I possibly could, and eventually got an affiliation. People are
really friendly and really helpful if you care enough about your project and
seem like you really know what you’re doing. People will just help you as much
as they can. It was great. I’m really thankful.
Tony: Anyone else?
Ainsley: Yeah, I mean I had a bit of an
advantage because I had been to New
Zealand and I knew some professors there.
But I think you’ll find that people- eventually I got the head of the Maori
Department at a university in New
Zealand to help me out and I think once
people understand they’re not financially responsible for you, then they’re
very much willing. Once they know that an affiliation is just someone that’s
going to support the project, people are really willing, and really excited to
have people from the United
States interested in their countries. So
just make it clear what you’re doing and they’re going to be very helpful I
think.
Tony: OK, my last question, and then
we’ll wrap up. Oh wait, Katie, sorry.
Katie: Oh that’s ok, my picture wasn’t
as rosy as everybody else’s so I just wanted to let people know that you can
get affiliations through cold calling, which is what I did. Emails worked
through the United States,
getting professors and their colleagues to point to people in Mexico. But then it was just
calling people in Mexico
who I didn’t have any real link to and giving them my schpiel right up front.
And it helped to have the statement written beforehand, your Fulbright
application mostly done so that they could get a full picture of your project.
Spencer: And it helped to mention Fulbright. I
would definitely mention that.
Tony: Last question I have any advice
for future applicants to the Fulbright-mtvU awards, in terms of applying to the
grant?
Alexis: I would say think of a project
that you’re passionate about or that you know you’d be really passionate about
cause I know it makes it easier to write the application and to convince other
people to help you. Because it is a little time consuming and if you really,
really want to do this and you think that you’re going to dedicate yourself to
making sure that it is a feasible project then that definitely puts you at an
advantage.
Tony: Cool. Any other advice? Going
once… go for it.
Katie: One of my professors asked me at
the end of my interview, well, how is this going to help Mexico? And that was a really good
question, and I actually re-wrote a significant part of my application with
that question in mind. So, not only thinking about how it’s going to help your
career and help the United States, but thinking about how it will help your
host country, will make it a really well rounded proposal.
Tony: Good point.
Spencer: I was going to say, just commit. Just
make sure that you really do want to do this project and then just go for it.
Don’t be shy and do everything you can.
Tony: Well, thank you for joining me
in this My Fulbright Life podcast. We hope to read your blogs and see the
videos and all this stuff during your grant and I think Katie will be the first
one that everyone will be reading about. Thank you very much.
All
together: Thank you.
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