Eight worldwide recipients of the Fulbright scholarship are currently studying at St. Michael’s College. The recipients are from a wide variety of countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Mozambique, Niger, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Yemen.
A truly wonderful honor
Dalini Walisundara, Hung Nguyen and Mohammad Maleki are only three of the eight Fulbright scholars who are currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL) at St. Michael’s.
Dalini Walisundara, 33, of Sri Lanka says she was first given the choice to study at St. Michael’s or at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo. She was familiar with SUNY Buffalo from stories of her friends who had received doctorates there, but wasn’t familiar with St. Michael’s. After researching she found the program at St. Michael’s to be much more to her liking, she says.
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(Photo illustration by Abby Robitaille) |
“The program [at St. Michael’s] offered me more than what SUNY Buffalo did,” she says. “The professor I worked with told me sometimes small colleges are a lot better than big colleges because you get the kind of attention that you need.”
Walisundara says she believes the Fulbright scholarship gave her much to offer Sri Lanka when she returns.
There are many projects she would like to get started now that she has all this experience from the scholarship, she says. She would also like to get more Sri Lankans to study at St. Michael’s so they could see what it’s like being at a small college.
“To be honest, I didn’t know anything about Vermont except that it was very cold,” she says. “’Oh my God, I’m coming from the tropics. How am I going to deal with the cold?’”
The scholarship allowed her to see a different side to Americans, she says.
“Had I gone to a big city it would have confirmed some of those stereotypes that I see on TV,” Walisundara says. “I got to see a different side to American society by living in Vermont and seeing the better side to American society that we don’t essentially promote.”
Hung Nguyen, 22, of Vietnam says he applied for the scholarship because it is very competitive and provides an incredible opportunity.
“[St. Michael’s] is a really good place to have the best quality training,” he says.
One of the good things about the scholarship is that it allows Nguyen to understand the American culture as well, he says.
Nguyen says when he initially applied for the Fulbright scholarship, he didn’t choose to study at St. Michael’s. The Institute of International Education (IIE) placed him at St. Michael’s, but he is very happy to be studying here.
After completing the two-year scholarship, Fulbright recipients are required to return to their native countries, Nguyen says. He says he hopes to go back and work at his university in Vietnam, but he would like to return to the United States some time if he has the opportunity, he says.
Mohammad Maleki, 26, of Afghanistan says he chose Fulbright because it’s very prestigious.
“It’s not totally about studying, it’s about sharing the cultures of the countries and getting to know people,” Maleki says.
Aside from already having taken a course here, he says he chose St. Michael’s because he feels the professors are helpful, kind and very professional in their fields.
Maleki hopes he can earn his doctorate here at the college, and if not then he will return to Afghanistan to pursue it.
The game plan
The Fulbright program is designed to provide funds for scholars, educators, graduate students and professionals to teach or research abroad as a means of increasing the mutual understanding between countries. The program was established in 1946 by then Arkansas Sen. J. William Fulbright, according to the program’s Website.
Approximately 279,500 individuals have participated in the program and approximately 6,000 awards are granted annually, according to the Website of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Fulbright program currently operates in more than 150 countries.
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The Applied Linguistics Department, room 119 in St.Edmund's Hall. (Photo by Abby Robitaille) |
Individuals who are interested in applying for the scholarship have the option to teach English or create a research project in their country of choice, says Tony Claudino, a media representative of the Fulbright program.
St. Michael’s is extremely fortunate to have the Fulbright program on their campus, says Elizabeth O’Dowd, professor of applied linguistics. Apart from their academic standings, the eight graduate Fulbright recipients were also chosen for their leadership potential, which is one of the reasons they were selected. Courage is another reason, O’Dowd says.
“They tell us stories about how they go to dangerous places and take a lot of risks to be able to get here and to get to the places where they needed to be interviewed,” she says. “They’ve had to overcome tremendous odds.”
The Fulbright program allows the Applied Linguistics Department to know more about the countries that they’ve only seen through media coverage, she says.
O’Dowd recalls a student from Baghdad who gave a presentation to the department where questions could be asked about Iraq and the war, and the student’s thoughts and perceptions, and what it meant for the student’s family.
Changing the world, one scholarship at a time
Part of being a ‘Fulbrighter’ is also being a cultural representative. Cultural experiences allow people to provide better images of the countries they’ve visited, Walisundara says.
In the past, St. Michael’s has had students from Palestine, Rwanda and Tajikistan, which gave the opportunity to learn more about those countries, O’Dowd says.
O’Dowd hopes that this will lead to a lot of cooperation overseas and that the students will return as leaders to their institutions and countries.
“As far as promoting good will, not just for [St. Michael’s] but for our country in general, I think they will bring a very good impression back,” she says.
O’Dowd believes the image of the United States has suffered a lot, and having foreign students studying at St. Michael’s helps rebuild it, she says.
Despite having taken risks to get here, most of the students are happy they did, she says.
“I’m glad I got the scholarship because I made a lot of friends, Americans, internationals; I learned a lot of stuff about the culture,” Maleki says. “Altogether I rate it 10 over 10.”