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insurance, tuition, and language courses if needed. The travel grant program awards money for students who need a supplemental income for their travel and study expenses. A portion of the full grant program's benefits may apply as well.

The amount of money in which each awarded student receives varies greatly, depending on where they are traveling to and for what purpose. The grant covers one academic year of study (8-12 months), and diversely supplies the needs of each individual's excursion. Due to this fact, it is impossible to list monetary amounts, however you can receive estimates and more information about the finances available by speaking with your local Fulbright Program Advisor.

While application statistics also vary from year to year, the average worldwide ratio of applications to awards is 5 to 1, meaning that five people apply for every one grant available. In 2005, the West Coast received 22% of the grants available to American students while the Northeast received 25%, the Midwest, 21%, The Rocky Mountain region 14%, the South 14%, and the Mid-Atlantic 3%. As is the case with any scholastic-based, government-assisted program, these percentages and ratios vary with each year, but this is the average.

While there is no level of financial hardship that you must fall into in order to qualify for the grant, Fulbright definitely values hard workers and go-getters that will bring prestige and functionality to the grant program. You must hold at least a Bachelor degree at the time of application (some exceptions will be made, however very few), and you must be in good health and able to travel & see your project/study time through to completion.

The Fulbright program excels at funding opportunities for students that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Just ask S. Carlson for an example of this sort of opportunity! Studying dance in West Africa until June of this year, Carlson is learning cultural dances and is slowly shedding her "White American" image as a dancer. Slowly learning to move her body like the natives in her temporary home of Benin, she continues to grow and experience in ways that she never would have been able to without the Fulbright grant.

However, as Carlson is learning, traveling and studying with a Fulbright grant does not give you a ticket out of the typical mishaps of participating in the performing arts. On her raw and explosive blog, she documents her first performance as an "African",

"The lights came up and, of course, the wrong song

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