5 Lessons Learned When Winning a Fulbright on the Third Try

It was during my master’s program at the University of Cambridge, that I realized how much I wanted Brazil to be part of my doctoral research. One of the reasons that I returned to UCLA for the PhD, instead of staying at Cambridge, was to engage closely with the campus’ rich resources, faculty, library collections, and opportunities related to the study of Brazil. My first quarter as a graduate student at UCLA, I immediately enrolled in language and literature courses related to Brazil. By the summer after my first year, I was in Brazil on a Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, where I was participating in an immersive language program and translating a small piece of Brazilian literature into English. During my time on the FLAS, I so enjoyed being part of a community of scholars who studied the complexities of Brazil that I decided I wanted a portion of my PhD experience to include more fieldwork in the country. But I knew that it was unlikely that my university could help me fund such research. Like most graduate students in the humanities and social sciences, I was responsible for generating my own financial capacity to carry out this kind of international research. Fulbright application: take 1 During the following academic year I put together Fulbright Foundation application materials for a project that would allow me to conduct research related to a national translation initiative called the â€Å"Internationalization of Books and Brazilian Literature.† I didn’t get it. Fulbright application: take 2 Shortly after I completed that initial application, I joined the Center for Primary Research and Training at UCLA’s Special Collections. There I began a yearlong archival project with a hidden collection of poetic Brazilian pamphlet literature called literature de cordel, or â€Å"stories on a string.† Once I’d processed a large portion of the collection, I put together my second Fulbright application. This time I proposed to pursue research related to similar items in Brazilian archives. I didn’t get that one either. Fulbright application: third time’s the charm The third time around, I dug deep and applied again. That time I won, and I was given the opportunity to conduct a more clearly articulated project related to cordel in Campina Grande, a city in the Northeastern state of Paraà ­ba, Brazil. When Fulbright finally told me yes, I had twenty thank you cards to write. The professors, archivists, staff, and colleagues whom I contacted throughout this process became vital parts of my emotional and intellectual support system. They watched my project grow with me through failure and reinvention. Unfortunately, a year after winning the Fulbright I withdrew from the program due to personal and health concerns, and declined the award. Since then I have shifted my research significantly in order to align with my physical needs. Lessons learned from grant writing But over the course of applying to the Fulbright multiple times, I learned a lot about grant writing. I gained a sense of confidence and control over the process that has enabled me to teach grant writing to successful students as a Student Affairs Advisor at the UCLA Scholarship Resource Center. What I share with my students is this: Even though large grant applications like the Fulbright look like a whole bunch of individual bits and pieces of information, those pieces must be composed to tell a cohesive story. Every section of written text, even the tiniest blurb, contributes to an application that can hook someone into your project at a glance. In my case, I applied for the Fulbright three years in a row before I figured out what a â€Å"cohesive story told in many parts† could feel like. Every year, I faced an identical application process, which included a series of similar essay prompts, interviews, continuous contact with Brazilian institutions, and lots of writing. The essay prompts didn’t change, but my attitude, approach, and strategies certainly did. Throughout this cluster of four posts, I share written samples from my third and successful round of application materials for the Fulbright. Alongside each of the major written components: the statement of purpose, personal statements, and small written blurbs required by the applications, I provide detailed analysis and personal reflections about the strategies that I developed for tackling some of the most difficult aspects of large grant application processes. Big picture strategies for working through the application as a whole Take advantage of the grant deadlines set by your school Like many large or national grant organizations, including the Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, the Marshall, Mitchell and Rhodes Scholarships, and the Churchill Award, the Fulbright Foundation offers the option for candidates to apply through a preliminary process hosted by their alma mater or current university. In these cases, individual universities put together internal committees that review the student/grad grant applications. These committees also interview the applicants, provide feedback on the initial proposal drafts, and subsequently write an additional letter of recommendation for each student/grad who goes through the process. In order to accommodate the time needed for internal review, campus submission deadlines usually fall significantly earlier than the national deadline for opportunities like Fulbright. Many students choose not to go through the on-campus process because they find the early deadlines intimidating, but I treated it as an important benchmark on the way to my final draft. Through my experience with multiple applications, I learned to use additional time created by school deadlines as a built-in review period. Just because I was required to submit a version of my materials two months before the national deadline did not mean that my materials had to be final at that time. My university closed my access to the Fulbright application platform during the two months between the early deadline and my interview. But even without access to the platform, I spent all of that additional time continuing to develop and edit my materials. At the interview for my third application, I brought in new affiliation letters, and was fully prepared to answer questions about any perceived gaps in my original submission. During our conversation, I demonstrated that I was ready to consider critical feedback with additional work, and I walked away with an additional letter of support that reflected my presence in a strong interview. When the campus committee reopened my application for final edits in the week before the national deadline, I was ready with materials that I had been improving for two months. Be thoughtful about your project location I chose to be based in Campina Grande, Paraà ­ba in order to work closely with an expert in the digitization of cordel and to have access to the world’s largest collection of my object of study. But there are several different ways to justify a primary location. As a rule of thumb: the less common the destination, the more likely it is that you will be considered as a competitive candidate. Large metropolises that serve as international hubs are usually the most sought-after locations, so unless your project is entirely dependent on one of your host country’s megacities, you may want to consider the less-frequented states, regions, and small cities. Regardless of why you propose to be in a specific place, your application materials should clearly explain a meaningful logic for why your project would best be carried out in the location you identify. Engage with potential institutional affiliations early in the process of project development Don’t wait to reach out to potential collaborators until you’ve â€Å"figured it all out.† Your statement of purpose will likely be much stronger if you truly build it based on dialogue with contacts in the host country. There are two important steps to building this relationship: (a) establishing meaningful dialogue, and (b) securing a formal Letter of Affiliation. a. How to establish meaningful dialogue Be proactive and research potential contacts before you reach out. Pick something about the project of which you are more or less certain, like a destination, community organization, object, or topic of study. Then do some focused research to see if other individuals or institutions care about or preserve resources that are related to your key themes. Once you’ve identified a few contacts, write each of them a personalized email that includes a brief description of yourself, your expertise, and the goals you think you would like to accomplish in collaboration with these individuals or institutions. Plan on reaching out to 5-10 potential contacts (it’s likely that not everyone will respond). To learn more about how to develop meaningful dialogues with those who do respond to you, check out my post about creating your statement of purpose. b. How to secure the Letter of Affiliation: Once I’d established a meaningful dialogue with my potential collaborators, I requested official Letters of Affiliation. For some organizations I really had to translate the importance of formality with every aspect of the process and explain why letterhead was essential. At the suggestion of a few individuals, I wrote sample drafts of affiliation letters in Portuguese and sent them to my contacts. They used these samples to write their own letters on institutional letterhead, and emailed me signed PDFs. As instructed by the Fulbright application, I translated these Letters of Affiliation into English and included copies of the letters in both languages as part of my application materials. Paint a comprehensive and consistent picture of yourself as an individual who can see beyond the professoriate Here are the three most important aspects of yourself that you must convey in your application materials, primarily in your personal statement: a. You are an individual with a clear sense of direction, and you are able to articulate meaningful relationships between your short- and long-term goals. b. You are an individual who brings expertise, enthusiasm, and skills that will enable you to achieve the specific goals that you set out in the statement of purpose. c. You are confident. Displaying confidence and self-knowledge in your written materials is not â€Å"cocky† or â€Å"rude.† Instead, confident writing shows the reader that you are capable of confronting unpredictable challenges and completing a project. Sometimes what you think is most obvious about your strengths and motivations just needs to be put into words. The personal statement plays an incredibly important role in bringing a sense of you as a human being to the scholarship and research elements of the project. Successful candidates express the desire to have a tangible impact that goes beyond critical scholarship in their field. This is often a difficult message for academics to compose for non-academic or even academic audiences. In my first two applications, my personal statement was relatively formal, and my long-term goals were primarily focused on becoming a professor who could teach the importance of culture and literature. Though I had engaged in a variety of different kinds of work, research, and extramural activities during my time in graduate school, I stuck with what I thought was a more â€Å"traditional† academic profile because that felt more relevant in an educational environment. But in my third round of applications, I decided to celebrate all of my various accomplishments as part of the big picture of who I am, who I wish to become, and whom I wish to serve. Instead of hiding previous non-academic work experiences, I demonstrated that I have played an active role in the redistribution of valuable information to a variety of public audiences throughout many professional experiences. I share much more detail about these choices in my post about writing the personal statement. During my third and final campus interview, the committee made explicit reference to the fact that my personal statement implied that I was not dead-set on becoming a professor (who can be at this point anyway?). I elaborated on the way that my previous work in financial research and tech had shaped my outlook on the growing importance of making information accessible to a variety of publics. To my delight, the interviewers responded with big smiles, â€Å"Well, you really are the twenty-first century academic.† I thought it was fascinating that I got through to an academic audience so successfully when I broke with my own hesitations, and simply shared a sense of uncertainty about becoming a professor. Develop at least one driving theme or concept that is visible in every aspect of your project After I had written a few drafts of my statements, I sat down with everything in front of me and reflected on the journey that had gotten me to that moment. I asked myself: â€Å"What connects the dots here?† and identified the overarching theme of â€Å"redistribution† or public access to information. Once I realized that this theme could hold together all of the experiences and goals that I expressed in my materials, I rewrote all of my drafts to strengthen and illuminate this driving concept. As a result, the way that I told my story, narrated my personal experiences, skillsets, and future goals lined-up directly with the overarching themes that I hoped to address through my research project. The decision to compose my final drafts with â€Å"access to information† in mind was not contrived. It was a completely genuine construction that I discovered through the writing process. Conclusion: Inspiring confidence in the future When I show my successful Fulbright materials to students who are in the process of preparing their own large grant applications, they often express feelings of intimidation. â€Å"Well obviously,† they exclaim, â€Å"you knew what you were doing. There is no way I am that ready to explain my project to the committee.† In response to these remarks, I usually chuckle because I have felt this exact same way about every grant I have ever written: I’m so not ready. That’s the amazing thing about proposal writing, your job as the candidate is to imagine the best possible outcome and explain how you would get there if given the opportunity to fly forwards with your project. It takes many drafts, but when you get to the final round of edits you can erase all of your feelings of self-doubt, and simply own the project and all of its potential. As you explore your options, engage in dialogue with potential collaborators, and seek out letters of reference, just remember that everything builds towards a final draft piece by piece. Take it from me: only when you’ve put in the work and polished your materials for the last time will you be able to stand back and say to yourself: â€Å"Yes, it really looks like I know what I’m doing.† Need help navigating the grant writing or application writing process? Looking to learn more about your graduate school or post-graduate research options? Learn how your Accepted advisor can help you achieve your educational and professional goals. By Rebecca Lippman, Accepted consultant. Prior to working at Accepted Rebecca worked as a Student Affairs Advisor at the UCLA Scholarship Resource Center. She has taught undergraduate and graduate students how to write large grant applications for grants awarded by organizations such as Fulbright Student Program, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Knight-Hennessy Scholars, Ford Foundation, Paul Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, and the National Science Foundation. Rebecca has a masters degree from University of Cambridge, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at UCLA. Want Rebecca to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Grad School Statement of Purpose, a free guide †¢ Awards! Grants! Scholarships! Oh My! a podcast episode †¢ The Myth of the Fully-Funded PhD: Using Scholarships to Mitigate the Financial Realities of Research Degrees

Cultural Imperialism Culture, Power, And Representation

The term cultural imperialism has often been used when describing certain aspects of the media industry. Cultural imperialism can be seen as the imbalance of culture, power and representation, favouring the socially dominant and influential. The cultural hegemony of these powerful industrialised or economically influential countries is thought to be able to both determine general cultural values and homogenise different societies globally. Although not restricted to media, cultural imperialism is in theory aided by the media’s ability to express culture. Many would argue, however, that this term in many ways no longer applies to contemporary media culture. Although media power structures from the past still have a certain amount of influence, recent trends suggest that relationships between different global media producers and consumers is more complex than what is implied by the term cultural imperialism. Media does not simply flow in a single direction in the present-day, bu t is often a complex ocean of inter-related currents and counter-currents. Thus, while the balance between cultures is not entirely equal, the term cultural imperialism is not an entirely adequate word to describe today’s media cultures. Historically, global media flows have moved in a singular direction from the developed west to other less developed nations. This unidirectional and unbalanced flow of media could be seen as a form of cultural imperialism. The use of organisations like Reuters, whichShow MoreRelatedEssay On Cultural Imperialism1526 Words   |  7 PagesThe primary objective of this chapter is to explore the cries of cultural imperialism, how this operates through the comics as those of The Phantom by Lee Falk, Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond and Tintin by Herge and how they have discovered more prominent support from overseas readers, both as daily paper/magazine comics series and also in the form of comic books. In no place has these comics been appreciated more enthusiastically than in Australia, India and Sweden and the other earstwhile colonisedRead MoreThe Media And Its Effects On The Global World1550 Words   |  7 Pagestransferred from a dominating power onto other cultures with lesser global influence. The Disney media conglomerate yields an unprecedented amount of control over the means of media consumption on a global scale. 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In this essay I will analyse to what extent globalisation is affecting identity formation, and also the roles of cultural borders in today’s world. I will assess whether through globalisation of the media we are in fact overcoming cultural borders and traditional stereotypes and in turn forging a mutual respect between foreign communities,Read MoreThe Multiculturalism Of The United States1036 Words   |  5 Pagesis whether multiculturalism in England provided a way to transcend the trauma of colonialism or whether it kept it very much alive. Although multiculturalism can be a positive element in cosmopolitan societies, joining together different races and cultures, it can also perpetuate the inherent racism of western societies. While England was becoming a more inclusive society, it was still a racist society. As England gradually withdrew its imperial tentacles, a sort of colonization in reverse occurred

My Philosophy of Education Essay - 2309 Words

My Philosophy of Education Education. What is education? Education is a field of study dealing with methods of teaching and learning. Many children in the world today are getting some kind of education. Whether it is at home or in a classroom, education is everywhere. Many of the teachers today have a philosopher that they use as a reference to their everyday teaching or use some of their methods to teach their students. In this paper Im going to express my meaning of education and the different aspects that each and every teacher should follow. Im going to start with nature of students than follow into with these topics: nature of knowledge, purpose of education, why it is important, things I want to accomplish as a teacher,†¦show more content†¦When the teachers got the results back they would place the students into groups such as: the slow kids, intermediate kids, average kids, and the superior. So if Rousseau was right on his theory than each kid in my class would have passed that test with high scores, and there would not have been a need for separate reading groups. When a child learns how to read than they will never forget how, they will just grow more in their vocabulary and speaking. What if someone asked you, What is knowledge? Does it Change? you should reply that knowledge is something that is far as one knows, and no it does not change; its absolute. What you know in life can only increase not decrease. There might come a time in your life when you think you know everything there is to know about a certain thing, but then you sit down and read a book you learn something else that you didnt know before. So that proves your knowledge increases not decreases, and the things you are taught and learn or your own will never change, they can only increase. An example showing that knowledge never changes is like when you read your bible. You go and read a chapter and you interpret what that chapter said. Then you read that chapter later on in that same year you will pi ck up on something that you never knew before. As for the truth of the bible it never changes and it also is absolute. If you would burn this book it wouldShow MoreRelatedMy Philosophy On The Philosophy Of Education844 Words   |  4 PagesIn mathematics, as in life, everything must be brought to the simplest of terms. I base my teaching philosophy on the foundation that every student is capable of learning mathematics. I will strive, as a teacher, to ensure that my students are able to have a strong foundation of mathematical skills when they leave my classroom. Some students believe that they are not mathematically gifted; therefore, incapable of learning mathematics. 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I would most recognize my philosophy of education as Essentialism. Essentialism has been a dominant influence in American education since World War II. It focuses on core curriculum of traditional academic topics. I believe that the purpose of education is teachingRead MoreMy Philosophy Of Education And Education1038 Words   |  5 PagesMy Philosophy of Education When trying coming up with a personal philosophy of education, I had to ask myself what the purpose of education is. To me, the purpose of education is to teach students knowledge that is needed to make it through school and to succeed in the world after graduation. Anyone can go into teaching, but not every teacher can teach. Teachers go above and beyond to introduce methods, philosophies, and strategies to help their students learn, as well as, retain the informationRead MoreMy Philosophy of Education824 Words   |  4 Pages13 February 2011 My Philosophy of Education I believe that progressivism educational philosophy most closely matches my educational ideals. In my opinion based on the progressivism educational philosophy, the purpose of education is to enable students to learn useful knowledge that has meaning to them in the future. Thus, the most useful education for students is the skill of â€Å"learning how to learn†. When students understand the methodsRead MoreMy Education Philosophy 1511 Words   |  6 PagesPersonal Mission Statement Education is the imparting and acquiring of knowledge and skills through teaching and learning. 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Analysis of the Poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth free essay sample

The poem â€Å"Daffodils† is also known by the title â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud†, a lyrical poem written by William Wordsworth in 1804. It was published in 1815 in Collected Poems with four stanzas. William Wordsworth is a well-known romantic poet who believed in conveying simple and creative expressions through his poems. In English literature, Wordsworth was one of the pioneers in the development of the Romantic Movement, or romanticism, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking. Nature was a guiding force to the romantic poet. Romanticism began in the mid-1700s as a rebellion against the principles of classicism. It promoted subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression. â€Å"Daffodils† is a lyric poem focusing on the poets response to the beauty of nature. It portrays a moment on April 15, 1802, when Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were walking near a lake at Grasmere, Cumbria County, England, and came upon  Ã‚  a shore lined with daffodils. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of the Poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He is now looking back on how much of an impression it has had on him. The poem consists of four stanzas, each of them being a sestet. The meter is iambic tetrameter, it is very even and regular. Each stanza has a cross rhyme in the first 4 lines and then ends with a rhyming  couplet. The rhyme comes at the end of lines, it is exact and masculine. We know that the speaker is a poet because he tells us so in line 15. As we can judge by the first 2 lines, he is a typical romantic character, a lonely sensitive observer. He has a rich imagination, as he creates the image of dancing people around him out of the field with flowers. He speaks in the third person, but we know that he speaks about himself. The tone of the poem is dynamic, it changes throughout the poem. We can observe it considering the plot structure. In the exposition the poet wanders around and with the help of simile we can feel how lonely he was, as the author compares himself with a cloud, which floats over vales and hills. The use of such words as â€Å"lonely† and â€Å"wandered†, which means walking with no purpose, creates a peaceful and sad tone. The inciting incident is the moment when he sees the line of daffodils. From here the tone starts to change into a joyful one. The epithet â€Å"golden† creates a bright, sparkling image of precious flowers. Here we can see a gradation (a crowd-a host), one of the main tools which changes the tone throughout the whole poem. In the second stanza the author’s mood is rising, and the tone becomes more and more delightful. He personifies daffodils, showing them as a dancing crowd of people. He compares them to stars, using simile at the second stanza: continuous as the stars that shine†¦ It brings the idea of brightness and plurality, also symbolizing the hope the lost man found watching that scene. There’re hyperboles â€Å"never-ending line† and the one in the line Ten thousand saw I at a glance, that describe the plenty of daffodils that struck the poet. The climax happens at the 3d stanza. The author personifies waves in their dance as well, but they can’t out-do the daffodils. The peak of the author’s emotions is expressed with the help of spondee (two stressed words: be gay) and affective words glee, gay and the epithet jocund. The tone is very positive, optimistic and joyful. The falling actions are the last 2 lines of the 3d stanza: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought  What wealth the show to me had brought. The repetition and series of dashes are used here to show the strength of the author’s feelings, he was rather shocked by the scene he was observing, and he couldn’t help just standing there and admiring. Denouement comes in concluding stanza, which is devoted to the author’s recollection of that magnificent event many years after. Here the setting shifts indoors, to the speaker’s couch. The â€Å"inward eye† is a metaphor for his memory. The oxymoron â€Å"the bliss of solitude† shows his being in the state of melancholy, but he’s not unhappy about that, because the image of dancing daffodils coming to his mind makes him feel happy. The tone is calm again, but it is joyful at the same time. The poem has a light and delicate rhythm that reminds us of a dance. The image of the dance occurs in each of the four stanzas. The modifications of the metric pattern in the last line of the 1st and the 2d stanza (the meter changes into falling) make the picture more dynamic, imitating the dancing movements of the flowers. The undoubted symbol in the poem are daffodils. The daffodil is one of the official emblems of Wales, a region in the south of England. These flowers are like little yellow people who keep the speaker company when he is feeling lonely. The beauty of them can always cheer him up, and he describes them in their joyful dance. Daffodils here are the symbol of natural beauty and represent in their dance the joy and happiness of living. So, this poem is typical for the Romantic movement, as it exposes the beauty of nature and its effect on human beings.