Preparing for Fulbright...

So, a summer update: I graduated with Honors in Political Studies and a Minor in Latin American Studies from Pitzer College on May 15th. Soon after, I have spent one week on vacation in Mexico touring the southern region's tequila country with old friends, as a gift from friends working with Pernod Ricard, the international spirits management company. Since returning to Southern Oregon, I have been back at home living at my mom's pad in Talent, just temporarily. Though my old home is lonely and uneventful at times, still I must admit it's nice to be at home laying low a bit after four years of academic intensity and social overload at the Claremont Colleges. I'm reading books on global development and entrepreneurship, paying close attention to the World Cup (Go Brazil! Go USA!), listening to new latino dance music, snapping photos, hitting the gym most days, and working at a local Mediterranean fast food joint, Happy Falafel, if for nothing else to keep my hands busy and rake in a couple extra greenbacks...

I've just returned from the Fulbright Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) for Western Hemisphere grantees in Washington, DC. The swamp of the nation's fine capital was scorching and humid as can be; but in typical Washington fashion, the air-conditioned conference room inside the Renaissance Dupont Circle Hotel was chilly as a refrigerator. There the 2010-11 English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) to Latin America spent two days meeting Fulbright managers from the State Department and the Institute of International Education, engaging workshops intended to develop our ability to manage English-as-Second-Language classrooms, and developing our skills in lesson planning. On behalf of other Pitzer grantees Ellie Wolf, Maya Rosas, and I, I can say that while some of the exercises were downright silly (for example, upon instruction from our facilitator, my Andean region session hummed aloud, sounding like sheep, while sticking fingers on our tongues and pinching our throats in order to trace and track the vibrations and noises of English verbs), many were very useful in shaping our realistic expectations of the classroom. I now feel that I am much more prepared to put together engaging lessons and activities for my Colombian students. For example, the workshops reinforced the importance of bringing multiple teaching media into the classroom, such as photos, music, and film, of utilizing flexible techniques to practice grammar, and of keeping in mind the widely varying learning styles of different types of students. Cooler still, the ETAs-in-training had an awesome chance to meet past grantees from Latin American programs, who shared invaluable advice about what to expect in the classroom, how to make best use of our travel opportunities, and how to best budget our time to make our grant periods not only educationally but also personally rewarding. Perhaps more salient, though, the conference helped put me in a solid and enthusiastic mental state for what lies ahead. Meeting my fellow ETAs to the Andean and Southern Cone regions, all very sharp graduates from top US universities, stimulated my excitement for the upcoming grant year, and made me feel overwhelmed by my massive imminent opportunity for multicultural absorption. What a fulfilling and exhilarating experience!

On July 29th, I begin my next chapter. After spending one night in Miami kissing my godmother Giovanna and family goodbye, I will land in Bogotá, Colombia for around one week of in-country orientation. Shortly thereafter, I will move to Medellín for 10 months to serve as an ETA at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB). I cannot describe the intense feeling of gratitude that I feel to have been selected to serve in "The City of Eternal Spring," site of one of Latin America's best public transit networks, mystical land of Pablo Escobar, alongside Tim Herrmann of UC Berkeley and Jeannie Guzman of Trinity College (CT), both committed scholars and vibrant people who care about the enhancement of the human condition. More exciting, still, is the fact that I will be near my dear old friend and fellow Pitzer graduate Sonya Fierst, who will carry out her Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship in the same city concurrently. Most likely residing in the Laureles district, my activities should include: leading English discussion groups with UPB students, researching urban and agricultural development, auditing Spanish, Politics, and Latin American history classes when not teaching, hopefully taking some salsa classes in my free time, and traveling over the course of the year all over the country as well as to Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil during vacation periods. As the PDO in Washington this week revealed, I, along with my fellow grantees, am ecstatic to visit other ETAs in their respective cities: Bogotá, Cali, Bucaramanga, Cartagena, Tunja... the list goes on!

This is a historic opportunity I know I would have never achieved had it not been for my inspiration to further develop my teaching and communication skills, which arose last summer at the National Student Leadership Conference. Moreover, though, I hold an intense feeling of honor to enter the worldwide network of Fulbrighters, movers and shakers who make important things happen worldwide. The networking potential of this experience, even within the Western Hemisphere grantees alone, is enormous and distinctive. Following the PDO, I now have reasonable grounds to believe that I will meet educated and passionate scholars, both North and South American, who will become friends for life.

Following Fulbright, I have been awarded a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to research economic/agricultural systems development at the graduate level, most likely in Nicaragua, from July 2011 through June 2012... As you can see, I will be abroad enhancing my studies for a very long time, but can happily say that with modern technology around I will always be close to my friends, family, colleagues, and mentors!

Until the next post... For now, I'm off to learn some more about Colombia's newly elected president, Juan Manuel Santos...