When I was invited to consider a Fulbright-sponsored professorship at the University of Vienna during the fall of 1990, I chose to do that rather than to continue my deanship responsibilities at the City College of New York of the City University of New York, as I figured this experience could offer me further opportunities to support faculty and students.
Wherever I find myself later this year, next year, or more down the road, I will remember this story and the many my year as a USTA has provided.
I have been able to volunteer with refugees from around the world through several organizations ... I am grateful that serving as a US teaching assistant in Austria has made this experience possible.
We were both excited about our year in Vienna but also anxious about having a child born abroad. We wondered what health care would be like in Vienna, what it would be like being first-time parents, and what it would be like to live in a country where we didn't speak the language.
Before leaving for the US, I’d had a lot of ideas about how Fulbright would influence my life and career and how I would like to structure my stay and travel the country. Most of the things I’d planned in advance were quickly thrown overboard, and my plans had to change.
Without the Fulbright Program, I never would have ended up applying to the Central European University. The friendships and memories I made during my time with Fulbright Austria will always be some of the sweetest that I have.
I definitely got a typical US campus university experience at CSB-SJU. But the great thing is I got even more than that."
I was able to play the amazing organs in Austria and at the same time travel with our pop group and become thoroughly immersed in Austrian culture. The experiences I received in Austria continue to shape the way I perform, teach, and direct.
I arrived at the idyllic, tucked-away liberal-arts campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville in mid-August and was treated with a perfectly coordinated welcome and, on top of that, four gorgeous weeks of nicely tempered summer in the upper Midwest. Not only was the weather fine for the most part; the small community at SJU (1,900 students) and its sister College of Saint Benedict proved to be extremely caring and definitely lived up to their trademark “Minnesota nice” way of life.
Das Fulbright-Programm hat mir nicht nur die Möglichkeit gegeben, in das Bildungs- und Universitätswesen der USA einzutauchen, neue Kontakte zu knüpfen und Unterrichtserfahrung zu sammeln, sondern auch die Vielfalt der Vereinigten Staaten kennenzulernen.
My Fulbright award allowed me to interview members of the Archduke’s family, other Habsburg descendants, and people across Austria and Germany impacted by the Second World War and the Holocaust. It has been said by many people, in many places, over many years that having a Fulbright is a life-changing experience. That has certainly been the case for me.
As is often the case with choir, everyone was very friendly and did their best to make me feel welcome. Being a part of the choir, of course, helped me learn the dialect better; but in a much more important way, it made me feel like I was a part of the community.
You can take the teacher out of the Fulbright Program, but you can never take the Fulbright Program out of the teacher. In fact, you cannot even fully achieve the former—the bond that unites all recipients of this wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience is much too strong.
Teaching my first language to others taught me so much about it, about myself, in return.
It is impossible to put all my experiences during this year into one story—I could probably fill a whole book. It was a year that I will never forget, a year that helped make me the person I am today.
This experience helped me grow an insane amount, and I am forever thankful for Fulbright Austria bringing me a new family—even if they’re based 4,300 miles from home.
I know the value of this experience and how much it changed me, my life, and my future. I’m so incredibly thankful for every moment I could experience during my time in North Carolina.
One of my favorite classes I ever taught as a USTA was a joint lesson I invited the British TA in town to come and do with me in my English Freiwahl class on British vs. American English.
To be a Fulbrighter and a law student at this place is something special. Diversity, solidarity, and the public commitment of students and faculty are embraced and taken very seriously. These values also reflect the reasons why I aspired to become a part of the Fulbright Program.
Fulbright FLTA 2018–19: such a great opportunity, such a great adventure, so thankful, so thankful, so glad.
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