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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Fulbright scholars and students discuss their experience abroad

Above is Beth Ciaravolo, a graduate student in the IU Department of Geography as she visits Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. While in Ukraine she will be conducting research on Ukranian ideas of a national homeland and national myth

Studying abroad is a planning-intensive feat, and funding can often be an obstacle, but for IU students like Beth Ciaravolo, who is now studying in Ukraine, the Fulbright United States Student Program makes international research and travel 
possible.

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs named IU as one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright grant winners.

Ciaravolo, a graduate student in the geography department, said without Fulbright funding her area of study she may never have been able to travel.

“There are only a handful of sources of funding for overseas work in my field,” she said in an email. “The purpose of this trip is to gather the data for my dissertation and thus is something I would have needed to do regardless, so I would have tried hard to find another way but it probably would not have been ideal.”

This is the second time Ciaravolo has been the winner of a Fulbright grant.

She has used both to continue research in Ukraine, where she is studying oral and written sources about Ukrainian historical sites and how they relate to a national mythology.

While Ciaravolo enjoys the opportunity to live and study in L’viv, Ukraine, and said she thinks being abroad is a great experience for United States students, she has encountered issues of her own relating to geopolitics.

She also said she has experienced a degree of sexism from some, as Ukraine is typically a more traditional culture than the U.S.

“People, especially older people, are always asking why I’m not married and don’t have children, and they are often surprised that I’m traveling and living alone this far from home,” Ciaravolo said.

Megan Kelly, who graduated from IU in May 2016, is in Colombia on her Fulbright grant and has faced different types of problems than Ciaravolo.

Kelly said she was supposed to be an English teaching assistant, but the university she was placed at has no English professors so she does all the work.

“I am essentially a 22-year-old university professor, designing my own curriculum, solo teaching, and assigning final grades,” Kelly said in a Facebook message.

She also works with an organization that focuses on conflict, forced migration and human rights issues on the border with Ecuador and 
Venezuela.

Kelly’s work will create a database of the conflict in those regions, which she said is essential for any society in the aftermath of a conflict.

Emma McDonell is another Fulbright student and Ph.D. candidate. She is in the IU anthropology 
department.

She is using her grant to study the effect of the quinoa boom and bust in the Peruvian highlands, which she said is the perfect location for her research.

She said she’s known about the Fulbright program since she was an undergrad at University of California, Santa Cruz.

She said there are challenges in other cultures if accepted, but Fulbright students need to be 
patient.

“My main takeaway or advice is to have patience and be flexible.

Making friends and meaningful relationships in different cultures with complex relationships to the U.S. is not easy, and neither is making a research project from scratch,” McDonnell said.

IU has 17 students who are abroad on grants in countries like Ukraine, Mexico, Colombia and Peru.

Awards are generally given to support graduating seniors and graduate students either to support research projects or teaching English.

Many of these students cite their experience as an amazing way to learn about other cultures and to expand their view beyond the borders of the U.S. Emily Hentz, who graduated and is in Mexico, is serving as an ETA like Kelly.

While Hentz’s area of study is biology, she said living in Mexico has changed her perspective.

She said in an email while most of the people she has met have been kind, it’s been difficult to answer tough questions about how the U.S. and Mexico relationship is changing with President Trump’s rhetoric and plans to build a wall.

“Our relationship with Mexico is so important, and I was hoping to be able to help promote cross-cultural understanding through my experience,” Hentz said in an email.

While each country presents their own distinct challenges, these students said they are glad to have the opportunity to travel.

In a press release, IU Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel said the Fulbright program remains an important part of the U.S., as well as IU’s cultural engagement around the world.

“Our commitment to this program, and our students’ success in it, embody the academic excellence and global engagement that are central to IU Bloomington’s mission,” Robel said in the press 
release.

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