Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast
Transcript For: Theresa Granza, Director Fulbright U.S. Student Program
April 22, 2009
Theresa Granza, Director Fulbright U.S. Student Program, discusses recent developments in the program.
Fulbright U.S.
Student Podcast with Theresa Granza
Tony: Welcome to the Fulbright U.S.
Student Podcast. I’m your host, Tony Claudino, with my co-host-
Schuyler: Schuyler Allen.
Tony: And this is the first podcast of
the new season. What season is it, Theresa?
Theresa: 2010-2011.
Tony: Our special guest this podcast
is Theresa Granza. She is the Director of the U.S. Student Program. Welcome,
Theresa.
Theresa: Thank you. It’s nice to be here.
Tony: So how about just giving us a
snapshot of what happened last year in terms of numbers and what are some new
things that people should expect for this new season.
Theresa: Well, for the 2009-2010 competition,
we received 7,311 applications which was about 500 more than we had last year,
and 500 more than the year before. So, about 1000 increase in applications in
the last two competition cycles. We anticipate giving approximately 1550 awards
this year, although that may increase slightly with some increases in funding
that have just been allocated in the recent budget approval. So we’re not
exactly sure how many but it is certainly going to be over 1500. A good number
of those are going to be teaching assistantships-
Tony: The ETAs, as we like to call
them.
Theresa: The ETA program, which actually the
number of applications we had this year was around 2200-2300, with about 500
Teaching Assistantship opportunities. But as I say, with the increase in
budgets this year, we anticipate giving more teaching assistantships this year
than we did last year. And in addition to that we have more countries that are
involved with the teaching assistantship program.
Schuyler: Which countries are new?
Theresa: Well, that depends on how you define
new. We have currently in the competition that weren’t announced last year but
to which we are giving teaching assistantships, and they include Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
and India.
And all three of those countries will be available in the next competition cycle
as well, for 2010-2011. And we will also have, although announced late last
year, teaching assistantships to several countries in Africa-
Tony: Three countries, right?
Theresa: Well, it’s Cameroon,
South Africa, and Madagascar although at the moment Madagascar
is in a state of turmoil so we’re not sure what’s going to happen there. But
the program is still available for next year.
Tony: Great.
Schuyler: So essentially now there are English
Teaching Assistantships available on all continents, essentially.
Theresa: On all continents, in about 46
countries.
Tony: And that’s a nice thing actually
cause when we do campus visits a lot of people want to do English Teaching
Assistantships in Africa, on the continent of Africa,
and we say there’s nothing available. So now there are three. Any more you
think?
Theresa: There might be. We’re waiting to
hear.
Tony: OK, so they should check back to
the website?
Theresa: Always check the website- it’s the
most up to date information. The new brochure will be available within the next
week or so. It’s an easy, portable piece of information, but the website is
going to be the default for all the information for the competition.
Schuyler: People should check the country
summaries for all the details.
Theresa: And everything new is going to be on
the home page.
Tony: And any new countries, like Portugal,
was new last year, any new ones coming on board in this new competition cycle?
You want to reveal now or you want to wait?
Theresa: No, there’s no secrets. The only one
that probably was… I don’t know that there are any real new ones. Malta
is going to be announced this year. We’ve given grants to Malta this year from among the alternates for
the Italy program, but
people will be able to apply for Malta next year as a teaching
opportunity. I don’t think there are any other new ones though. If there are,
I’m just not remembering…
Tony: Any increased numbers to English
Teaching… the two big ones are obviously South
Korea and Germany.
Are they increasing the number of awards or are they pretty much…
Theresa: They are pretty much steady state.
Schuyler: Where would you like to see more
applications in terms of ETAs right now?
Theresa: ETAs? Well, you know, in the new
programs it’s always good to have nice numbers, but places like the Slovak Republic
always need additional applications. Not only for teaching assistantships but
for the regular awards.
Tony: How about Portugal, my favorite?
Theresa: Portugal is actually, did extremely
well this year and-
Tony: Of course.
Theresa: we’re going to have 9 grants to Portugal
in 2009. That’s more than we’ve had in the past 5 years all told. So that’s
really a big plus, but obviously we would like more applications for Portugal
as well. You’ll see the-
Tony: And Norway’s
new English—was it Norway?
Theresa: Yes, Norway’s was new but we had a significant
number of applications. What you need to know is that in the brochure we have a
chart of English Teaching Assistantship opportunities, the countries, the
number of applications we had this year and the number of grants we anticipate,
plus all the requirements language wise and where the placements will be-
whether they’ll be highschools or elementary schools or university level et
cetera. So you need to take a look at that. They’re all in one place so you can
take a look at that.
Tony: And it’ll be on the website as
well.
Theresa: Yes. And another thing that we want
to point out to everyone is that in the application, the statement of grant
purpose for the teaching assistantships will be one page only next year. So
people don’t have to do extensive research proposals. That’s not what’s needed
in the teaching assistantship program. So we’ve actually sub-divided on the
website How to Complete the Statement of
Grant Purpose for Research Award and
How to Complete a Statement of Grant Purpose for a Teaching Assistantship
Award.
Tony: Great.
Theresa: And the same is true…. Reference
forms have changed a little bit too. And that’s information that, again, will
be on the website.
Tony: Let’s move to full grants- any
news on the full grants?
Schuyler: Yes, expansions in any countries, or
new opportunities?
Theresa: Well,
Tony: India’s the big…
Theresa: India has pretty much doubled in
size in terms of the number of awards that are available. We’ll have about 40,
plus the teaching assistantships. We’re not exactly sure how many teaching
assistantships, probably 5 – 10, but about 40 full grants next year which is,
as I say, double the number we have this year. And there are a lot of new
opportunities this year, a lot of joint awards in the U.K. for some interesting
places and for some interesting opportunities, for example the University of
Coventry has an award in automotive design, not something that we get a lot of
applications in, but certainly it’d be a great opportunity for anyone who’s in
that field. Finland
is extremely interested in receiving more applications from PhD candidates.
They have money from the Finnish government to fund people at that level and we
had one application from a PhD candidate this year. So, there are lots of
opportunities like that. Ah, the water management award in the Netherlands-
Tony: [overlapping with Schuyler] It’s
still going on.
Theresa: It’s still going on.
Tony: And then my favorite, Slow Food.
Schuyler: That’s a nice grant.
Theresa: Slow Foods Award in Italy which is a grant that will send somebody
to the University
of Gastronomic Sciences
for a Masters degree in Slow Food or…
Tony: Slow Food, yes. Some long
Italian name.
Theresa: [laughter] It’s a long Italian name.
Tony: Are there other master degree
programs they can pursue kind of like Slow Food? I know that you have the
business degree in Spain…
Theresa: There aren’t a whole lot. There’s the
Nyenrode one in the Netherlands,
which is basically $25,000 for tuition for the masters in business
administration at that institution. But there are, as Schuyler started to say,
graduate degree program awards in Mexico as well.
Tony: Exactly.
Theresa: But not a whole lot of anything
that’s that pointed. People can apply to do a one year award. I’m sorry, a one
year masters.
Tony: And how about the Euromasters-
is that…?
Theresa: Euromasters is part of the European
Union program.
Schuyler: The E.U. program.
Theresa: You have to be applying in the E.U.
program and that requires you to do work… well it doesn’t require you to do
work in more than one country, but it does allow you to do work in more than
one country.
Tony: Great. Let’s talk about… it’s
April right now, 2009. What are some next steps? So someone listening to this
podcast, they’re thinking of applying for Fulbright-- what would be the next
step for them?
Theresa: Well first of all, the competition
opens on May 1st.
Schuyler: May 1st. Keep that in mind.
Tony: Something before that.
Theresa: Well the application will open on May
1st. So you can’t get access to the application until then. But that
still gives you a whole lot of time from May until October to produce an
application. I would not suggest waiting until the very last minute.
Tony: I was thinking that they should
see their Fulbright Program Advisor on their campus, get in touch with them.
Theresa: Well the first thing you do, if
you’re enrolled, is to get in touch with the Fulbright Program Advisor.
Tony: Or even your alma mater.
Schuyler Because an alum can potentially work
with an FPA on campus, depending on the campus.
Theresa: They’re not required to work with
alumni, but certainly be in touch with them and they can be extremely helpful
in helping you to fill out your application and to seek out referees, and
refine your project statement and personal statement, et cetera, and to refer
you to other places as well. If you’re not enrolled in an institution, we call
you “at-large,”
Tony: Great, terminology is coming out
right in the first podcast.
Theresa: you work with a program manager here
at IIE for the country or world region that you’re interested in applying for.
For now, if you don’t know where you want to apply, I would suggest you be in
touch with Walter Jackson, who is primarily the go-to person for general
questions. And he may guide you a little bit, and then push you off to a
Program Manager.
Schuyler: There’s a bunch of resources too that
people can dip into that we have available on our website.
Tony: For example?
Schuyler: We have videos.
Tony: On youtube.
Schuyler: On youtube.
Tony: We have a channel. Do you know
the name of the channel?
Schuyler: Fulbright Channel.
Tony:
No, Fulbright Program is
the channel.
Schuyler: Fulbright Program is the channel.
Tony: So you can check us out
there. We’re on the podcasts. Since you
found us, you can hear the previous podcasts too.
Schuyler: We’re on iTunes.
Tony: Exactly, iTunes.
Schuyler: And, there’s going to be an applicant
blog.
Tony: Which is live
Schuyler: on our website.
Tony: Yup.
Theresa: And there’s much more. And one of the
things you want to take a look at right off the bat is the schedule of guidance
sessions, which will be teleconferenced from New York
to all of our regional centers, in Chicago, Houston, Denver, San Francisco, and Washington.
And also the list of webinars that we will be doing, which will be in the first
instance world region based. And they will be attended by alumni from the
Fulbright program who had grants in those world regions plus the program
manager for that world region to answer general questions. And we’ll have some
general webinars to walk people through the application process and answer
specific questions.
Schuyler: A lot of good resources, but the
primary one is also us. We’re available if you want to call us, our phone numbers
are on the website, if you have specific questions related to the country
you’re interested in applying to, once you’ve done your homework, we’re here.
Tony: So I do think they should
probably do their homework a little bit before calling Walter.
Theresa: Well I think you need to take a look
at what’s available, decide if you’re… especially if you’re in the Arts, Walter
is the best resource, Creative and Performing Arts. He’s pretty much the
program manager for Creative and Performing Arts. So you should be in touch
with him if you have any specific questions. Again, if they’re country oriented
questions, the program manager for the world region is better. But if they’re
to do with broad strokes or what the supplementary material needs to be or if you
can actually do a project in this field, or what field you should apply in,
those are the kinds of questions that he is extremely helpful with.
Tony: I think we’re good. Thank you
Theresa. We’re going to have you again I know, talking in more detail about the
application and other things.
Schuyler: Thank you Theresa. And maybe some surprise additions to the
program this year that certainly come along as we go through the cycle.
Theresa: Let me just tell you we had so many
things last year it was like we had to do a whole other competition.
Schuyler: So keep that in mind, stay tuned,
listen to the podcasts, and join us later.
Tony: And we’ll see you later. Thank
you.
Schuyler: Thank you.
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