Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Sharif Agabre: I applied to the Fulbright Program because it’s one of the only programs
in the US that allows true cultural exchange.
Catherine Miller: Sitting at a desk in a library really doesnt do it...When I meet people they
inspire questions that I never would have asked of my work before I had traveled.
Norma Gonzalez: Living abroad is an experience that changes your life forever...broadens
your mind.
Alain McNamara: Learn to listen...open their eyes. Become better interpreters of each others
cultures and each others values. That had been what the later senator had envisioned
for this program.
Tonia Tiewuhl: Being an American who was there to work on a project specific to Jamaica really
opened a lot of doors.
What it created for me was an awareness of....how small the planet is and how connected one
person can be.
Narrator: In meeting the challenges of this new era of astonishing change, people young
and old are finding their voices – calling for justice, opportunity and global connection
through powerful new tools of social media.
The idea of person to person global networking was anticipated three generations ago by a
young United States Senator named J. William Fulbright. Sickened by the horrors of modern
war he sought to promote scholarship and promote peace between nations -- thus the Fulbright
Program was born.
Senator J William Fulbright: I think living and working with people in another country
changes ones attitude toward those people, toward all countries with a different culture.
I think it creates a capacity for empathy, the capacity to understand a different point
of view, a different religion.
Narrator: Since its creation in 1946, 310,000 students and scholars, Americans going abroad,
and citizens from 155 countries, have participated in what is one of the world’s premiere international
education and cultural exchange programs.
Fulbright exchanges have expanded opportunity around the world for over six decades. Connections
between the U.S. and the Middle East have had lasting significance, with Jordan's Fulbright
Program serving as a model of intellectual and cultural engagement.
Mr. Maysoon Al Nahar: We have very few women in Jordan who are archaeologist. At that time
when I left....there was only one. It was my first visit to the U.S.... I loved it.
Everybody who really wants to make a change and be a leader in his specialty should get
a Fulbright. It teaches you how to do it, it teaches you how to think, it teaches you
how to be open to the world, and to understand other cultures and to make other cultures
understand yours.
Narrator: Promoting dialogue between cultures is at the heart of the Fulbright mission.
Persian-American student Jasmine Melvin-Kushki came to study how traditional Islamic art,
and emerging contemporary art, inform and engage one another. Through this time in Amman,
she also found herself.
Jasmine Melvin-Kushki: It’s always been very natural for me to...to sort of build
bridges between cultures. And so the Fulbright has really allowed me to actually feel more
at home than I ever have before in my life. Because it has taken what was the background
noise and sort of the unspoken mission of my life and put it front and center.
Zach Ruchman: I wanted to apply for an English teaching grant as opposed to a research grant.
Narrator: Across town, Zach Ruchman’s English language class reflected the great diversity
of Jordanian society – Bedouins, Palestinians, and refugees from across the region.
Zach Ruchman: So I teach at Jordan University of Applied Hospitality and Tourism, the students
they are looking for careers in hospitality, tourism, hotel management. They need English
professionally. A lot career prospects hinge on how good we can get their English to be.
Narrator: While some English language assistants teach at the college level, many are placed
in primary and secondary schools.
Sharif Agabre: I teach 9th and 10th graders. So I do the basic coursework and whatnot.
And then for extra – curricular activities, I started a book club
Narrator: Outside the classroom, Sharif and others volunteer at a sports center helping
build athletic skills and self-discipline.
Sharif Agabre: Definitely the most meaningful part of the Fulbright experience in general
has been my experience in the camp. I’ve got a very strong feedback from the community
here and I’ve met incredibly interesting people.
Zach Ruchman : Everyday has been a new adventure. Having a Fulbright has given me the chance
to not only have this great experience ....teaching these students and learning about their lives
and their hopes and dreams and what they want to do.... But also to just get out and wander
the streets and meet people and see a whole range of Jordanian society and many different
slices of life here
Narrator: And the transformative experiences go both ways. Dr. Rana Dajani spent happy
five years with her husband and children in Ames, Iowa. She brought home not only a doctorate
in Microbiology, but also something she learned in the local public library.
Rana Dajani: My children were always at the public library in the states. Now when we
came to Jordan, I went around looking for a library so I could take them to it, but
there were only a few libraries.
As a scientist I made some research and observations, how come children don’t read . . . not just
in Jordan, but in the Arab world.
Narrator: From one mosque in a quiet neighborhood in East Amman, there are now 80 sites across
Jordan, managed by over 400 women and touching the lives of over 4,000 children!
Rana Dajani: The first time the 25 children came...they were dragged by their parents because .. you know...when
parents hear there is an activity they make their children go to it. But after they experienced
the read aloud session...they were dragging their parents to come here every week and
they wanted it to be on a more frequent basis. So it was a success. But if you plant the
love of reading...it’s a gift or a tool or a skill forever...it never stops....so
you can change the whole world.
Narrator: From her base in Durham. North Carolina, Fulbright alumnus Rachel Weeks continues to
weave the connections she started 8,000 miles away.
Colleen McCann: I meet Rachel over a very shoddy phone call connection. She said she
had gone over to Sri Lanka on a Fulbright scholarship to study living wage.
Rachel Weeks: I have long been fascinated in this idea of ethical fashion.
Narrator: A Duke University graduate, Rachel went to Sri Lanka to study the low wage textile
industry.
Rachel Weeks: One of the very immediate facts that became clear to me on my Fulbright was
that all of the challenges that garment factory workers were facing boil down to poverty.
And I saw no better way and no more immediate way to improve their lives than to increase
wages.
Narrator: To put her values of socially responsible entrepreneurship into practice, Rachel launched
a boutique college apparel company – SchoolHouse, Inc. With a factory in Sri Lanka, a creative
director in New York, headquarters in Durham, North Carolina, and selling to over a hundred
college campuses, Rachel has created a virtual globe-spanning company that beautifully expresses
the core values of the Fulbright experience.
Rachel Weeks: The Fulbright has changed not only the way I think about the world, it made
me feel as though I had the ability to be a global citizen.
Narrator: The power of global connectivity also shines through in the Fulbright year
spent by Hunter College graduate Alice Arnold. She went from Times Square to Hong Kong to
document the impact of astounding new digital sign technology.
Alice Arnold: When I think about these signs, they are part of the wider thought about consumer
society. In Asia right now, they are building these incredible visual signs with LED technology.
And it’s definitely a part of the movement of cultural capitalism, of these cities who
are competing against each other to show they have arrived in the world.
For me, the main benefit of the Fulbright it supports a project work and that is just
great importance. And I am incredibly grateful having that experience.
Charles Tien: Hunter College is a large public urban university. We have about 23 thousand
students. Its a very diverse student population, it is a majority minority institution.
Tonia Tiewuhl: So I applied for a Fulbright and I went to Kingston, Jamaica. I was there
from 2009 to 2010 piloting a physical- social program for children with *** and AIDS.
The lasting effects of the Fulbright on me personally, I've always been passionate about research,
but I think it really impressed upon me the need to participate in global health on a
wider scale.
Narrator: Poet Meena Alexander brought her wider world to her Fulbright experience and
found herself translating between cultures in unexpected ways!
Meena Alexander: I went to India to teach. I had one of the teaching Fulbrights. And
so when people would say, “Well what kind of campus do you work on?” and I would say,
“Well, the college I work on sits on top of a subway station. It’s a bit like the
crossroads of the world because we have so many immigrant students here.”
I think this is the very best that the United States of America can do in terms of reaching
out to different parts of the world. The access to education and to ideas and to culture...
I think people are genuinely curious.
Narrator: It’s that curiosity about the world – whether in the arts or languages,
politics or the sciences -- that leads thousands of students, scholars and other professionals
to explore the world through Fulbright grants. The U.S.-Argentina exchange is among the oldest
and strongest.
Carina Ferrari: My research is specially related to neuro-degenerative disease. Specially Parkinsons
and Multiple Sclerosis.
Narrator: Dr. Ferrari studied at the School of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati
in 1998, and has maintained a productive collaboration with her American colleagues.
Carina Ferrari: Fulbright fellowship helped me so much because it gave me the first step
to go abroad to work in another lab to know how you work in another country that it was
totally different than working here. So it was the first step, they opened a huge door.
Narrator: Dr. Joshua Rosenthal found an exciting and challenging class of students when he
came from the National Institutes of Health to the City University of Buenos Aires.
Joshua Rosenthal: Teaching here has actually been very exciting, very high quality work.
They are motivated, hard-working, well prepared, bright students to a one. Another thing that
is quite interesting is that they move very quickly to the social and political issues
in our discussion. And here it’s hard to get away from questions... ah social equities,
where resources are distributed, whether communities have access.
Narrator: Cellist Nestor Tedesco was inspired by his Fulbright experience in the U.S. to
bring some of the poorest children in Buenos Aires “access to resources.” But it’s
about far more than learning classical music.
Nestor Tedesco: Well when I returned from my Fulbright experience, I started this project
that has grown from 30-40 kids to 1,600.
This project is to help kids not stay in the streets and we are using music as a tool.
And we are using orchestra instruments to get the place like family...like a society.
If we get a kid playing very well that’s good....but that is not the idea. For me this
project, success was like a kid who told us past year. He said Teacher, you saved my life
because many of my friends were killed because they were in drugs. And I am coming here every
Saturday, then I am not in that business.'
Narrator: Art to help transform lives, Art to nourish the soul of a nation – these
are some of the ways the Fulbright experience enables people -- and nations -- connect.
Here at “Memory Park,” built to help remember the traumas of Argentine history, Victoria
Fortuna reflects on her work.
Victoria Fortuna: My dissertation looks into the relationship between dance and politics
from the 1960's to the present with specific attention to how dance remembers and represents
histories political violence.
The Fulbright really has opened doors for me, both in terms of supporting my research
in general, allowing me to be here and do the work that I need to do. But also it’s
really enriched the experience incredibly. Just the time I have spent here, the relationships
that I've made here and the connection I feel to this place is something I'll care through
my personal and professional life.
Narrator: Across town, at the National Museum of Natural Science, Fulbrighter Daniel Luna
operates on a much older time line – studying the unique dinosaurs found in the high deserts
of Argentina and Chile!
Daniel Luna: My dissertation involves looking at fossil mammals that were discovered in
the Andes of Chile that span a 5 million year interval from 20 million to 15 million years
ago.
My main goal is to identify what these fossils are.
The Fulbright lets you work, do your research in a very unencumbered setting. It’s a very
diverse fellowship available to many types of research people ... with many interests
and one of its main goals is just to foster connection between two different counties.
Norma Gonzalez: Their presence...the presence of these Americans here and the presence of
the Argentinians at these places in the states touches an infinite number of lives and has
an infinite number of consequences that we are not even aware of.
Sec. Hillary Clinton: We can connect with each other through the internet, but we still
literally need to not only communicate but understand. Senator Fulbright knew that humanizing
international relations was critical for achieving lasting peace and progress.
John Hope Franklin: In bringing together people of like minds, people of common interests,
people who would rather be at peace than at war. And people are searching for opportunities
to have peaceful relations.
Narrator: And as a Fulbrighter, that search continues even when you return to your home
country.
Joel Ducoste: I did my Fulbright in Belgium, and I learned so much from the Fulbright association
of Belgium. When I came back to the U.S., I made sure that I wanted to join the Fulbright
association and do the same thing. To educate those from abroad about the wonderful things
in the U.S. And really you have to understand that once you’re a Fulbrighter you’re
always a Fulbrighter.
Narrator: Born out of the ashes of World War 2, inspired by a remarkable vision of global
exchange and dialogue, the Fulbright Program offers unique opportunities to connect and
change lives, one person at a time.
Sharif Agabre: I am a strong believer in the theory of 'soft power'
Rani Dajani: Experiencing the culture, understanding the people there, and also being a role model
and example of people from our part of the world.
Tonia Tiewuhl: Difficult but wonderful, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Rachel Weeks: It’s absolutely incredible, it changed my life in every way shape and
form.