by Erica Kowsz, Associate Director for Fellowships
After a whirlwind application season, 42 Wesleyan seniors and alumni have submitted applications for the Fulbright US Student Program. This program allows US citizens who have graduated with at least a bachelors degree to travel to one of 140+ host countries, where they will live and work alongside people from that country, sharing everyday experience and building cultural understanding. There are two categories of Fulbright grant: Study/Research grants support independent research, conducted in affiliation with a host university, or direct enrollment in a graduate degree program abroad. English Teaching Assistant grantees serve as assistant teachers of English for between 10 and 25 hours a week and often pursue personal projects or civic engagement activities during the rest of their time.
42 completed applications makes this a big year for Fulbright on our campus; for perspective, in recent years, numbers have hovered around the low thirties. Just over a quarter of our applicants this year are alumni while nearly three-quarters are seniors. We also have the applicants in all of Fulbright’s six world regions:
The countries our applicants hope to travel to are:
Brazil (2 Study/Research)
Canada (1 Study/Research)
Colombia (3 ETA)
France (1 Study/Research)
Germany (1 Study/Research)
Ghana (1 ETA)
Greece (1 Study/Research)
India (1 Study/Research)
Kazakhstan (2 ETA)
Latvia (1 ETA)
Madagascar (1 ETA)
Mexico (5 ETA and 1 Study/Research)
Morocco (1 Study/Research)
Nepal (1 ETA and 1 Study/Research)
Peru (1 ETA)
Romania (1 ETA)
South Korea (1 ETA and 1 Study/Research)
Spain (8 ETA)
Taiwan (2 ETA)
United Arab Emirates (1 Study/Research)
UK (1 Study/Research)
Uzbekistan (1 ETA)
Our campus Fulbright Committee interviewed and provided feedback to 41 applicants this fall; thank you to all 23 faculty and staff who served this fall! These applications would also not have been possible without the contributions of many Wesleyan faculty and staff who wrote recommendations for our applicants. I’d also like to make a special shoutout here to Alyssa Maraj Grahame who has been helping us part time in the fellowships office to meet one-on-one with applicants, provide feedback on drafts, and facilitate campus interviews.
Now that applications are in, they go first to a US round of review, the National Screening Committee. After that, semifinalists decisions are announced in January and the semifinalists’ applications are sent on for host country review and final decisions. There’s still a long road ahead, so if you know a Fulbright applicant on campus give them a big congratulations this week and then kindly don’t ask them about Fulbright until 2025! I jest but it is a long wait.
Congratulations to all our applicants. I’m proud of the work you did in your applications no matter the results in the end. I hope you will have learned something about what you want to do in the future, what your unique strengths are, and how you can communicate these to an audience of reviewers who don’t get the chance we have to get to know you in person.
Many thanks to our Fulbright Committee members who interviewed applicants this fall:
Scott Aalgaard
Amir Aissa
Talia Andrei
Hyejoo Back
Peggy Carey Best
Anita Deeg-Carlin
Daniella Gandolfo
Ana Perez Girones
Emily Gorlewski
Masami Imai
Indira Karamcheti
Giovanni Miglianti
Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret
Rehana Patel
Mary Paul
Juan Esteban Plaza
Andy Quintman
Roberto Saba
Mira Seo
Lynne Stahl
Krishna Winston
Roman Utkin
Stephanie Weiner
Are you a faculty or staff member interested in joining the committee for next fall? Write to Erica Kowsz at ekowsz@wesleyan.edu any time.