1 of 4

Write now Article Tools

Page 3 of 4

started playing. They eventually got the song right but the level was way too low such that I felt naked and exposed onstage. This would prove to be an omen of impending disaster. Around the middle of the first song, my strapless costume top started a slow and agonizing descent."

She goes on to elaborate about how despite this terrible first experience overseas, she received accolades, and she continues to move forward with her study and observations. This sort of tenacity is typical (and required) of a Fulbright grant beneficiary.

However, Fulbright grants aren't all about the performing arts. C Kilbane, a graduate from Santa Clara University, has recently gone to Peru to observe and find ways to improve the debt-for nature transactions found there. Working in the genre of environmental studies this way gives her an edge on other future job applicants she will go up against, and she is lucky that she got the opportunity! Only 10 grants were issued this year for study in the nation of Peru, and the documentation and monitoring that she will complete while she is there will make a lifetime of difference both in Latin America and back here on the home front. For more information on Kilbane, you can read an extensive article on her and her experiences with the Fulbright program on the Santa Clara University website.

S. Premjee, a Fulbright scholar from 2002 truly mastered the realistic world perception that Fulbright hopes all of their students will obtain. Traveling to the United Kingdom she says,
" I sort of feel like a World Citizen now that I have traveled outside of the US and actually lived outside the US I have a recognition of the globe that I think is kind of difficult to have when you don't move. Moving is quite a luxury it's a privilege, and so I feel like I have a global consciousness that I only had before through books but not through actual experience. My advice to Fulbright applicants would be to prepare ahead and to be thinking about specifically what you hope to be getting out of the experience because the better sense you have of that ahead of time the better you can communicate that on paper."

Seizing the day and determining how to do so is the mantra of many Fulbright applicants hoping to receive the grant money and the chance to go out and experience the world with a new sort of eyes.

While the program is fantastic at providing young people with such experiences, there are some definitely downfalls to it as well. One of these is the fact that,

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Ways to fund your college tuition?
We want to hear your view. Write now!