Augsburg faculty members George Dierberger and Joseph Erickson have been named Fulbright Scholars for the 2022–23 academic year. Each year, the Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board select roughly 800 U.S. citizens to receive the Fulbright Scholar award for international travel, study, and teaching.

A competitive Fulbright application requires strong academic merit, demonstrated leadership potential, and a good match between an applicant’s strengths and a host institution’s needs. But for both of Augsburg’s faculty recipients, there’s a personal connection that makes receiving the Fulbright particularly rewarding this year.

Dierberger, an associate professor of business administration who also directs Augsburg’s MBA program, is mindful of family history as he prepares to spend three months in residence at the Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. While this will be his first trip to Ireland, his great-great-grandfather hailed from County Cork. During the fall semester, Dierberger will develop case studies, lecture on innovation, help to build out a curricular focus on entrepreneurship, and partner with the Letterkenny business community to create an advisory council and internship opportunities.

Erickson, a professor of education and a psychologist by training, first visited Slovenia in 1994 through connections made by former Augsburg colleague Magda Paleczny-Zapp. Several of the graduate students tasked with assisting the Erickson family during that trip are now faculty themselves—including a department chair at the University of Ljubljana. Erickson will spend the spring collaborating with a team in Ljubljana to adapt a tool used to measure racial attitudes in the U.S. for the Slovenian context. He and his colleagues will shape the new scale around nationalism, a key issue for a society at the crossroads of western and eastern Europe and a way station for refugee migration.

In addition to these faculty awards, Augsburg was recently named a top producer of Fulbright students among U.S master’s institutions, with three students receiving scholarships to teach English abroad in 2021–22.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. For over 75 years, the program has provided more than 400,000 participants with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to challenges facing our communities and our world. ​​Fulbright alumni include 61 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 40 who have served as a head of state or government.

The post Augsburg Faculty Awarded Fulbrights in Ireland and Slovenia appeared first on News and Media.

In the last year, three Auggie alumni have been working abroad through the Fulbright program. One taught English in Ecuador, another is conducting research in Norway, and Spanier is an ETA in Uničov, Czech Republic. He is one of 12 Augsburg alumni who have been awarded Fulbright grants, and Augsburg College is recognized by The Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright Scholars.

A Fulbright ETA provides assistance to teachers of English and teaches non-native English-speakers while also serving as a cultural ambassador. Depending on the country, ETAs might teach students ranging from early elementary school to the university level.

The Fulbright U.S. student program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to participate in international graduate study, advanced research, and teaching worldwide. The program annually awards approximately 1,800 grants and operates in more than 155 countries.

Spanier reflected on his experiences as an ETA. Below are some of his thoughts, insights, and advice. Spanier will return to the United States later this year.

Spanier finds “core similarities” with people in his Czech community

The most unique and enjoyable aspect of the Fulbright experience has been the complete cultural immersion. I’m the only native-English speaker living in this tiny Czech town, and for most people, I’m also the only American that they’ve ever met. Unlike when I studied film in Prague (where there were always fellow study-abroad-students or tourists), I am completely and entirely surrounded by Czech natives.

This unique situation often presents me with two very different options: stay at home looking at my computer all day, or go out and experience as many Czech foods, customs, holidays, and other events as I possibly can. This has resulted in me developing what I’ve been calling a “yes-driven” mentality; I try to accept every invitation that comes my way. Thankfully, this has led me to attend many great events, such as a typical Czech dance ball, a GulaÅ¡ festival, a wine tasting event, traditional Christmas celebrations, cross-country ski trips, and occasional nights at the pub.

The complete cultural immersion also has its challenges. Although I’ve spent a lot of time trying to teach myself more Czech, the language barrier remains an obvious challenge and can make grocery shopping, transportation, and other simple things quite difficult.

A very unexpected challenge in my small rural town has been encountering different opinions regarding cultural and ethnic diversity—opinions that are often very different than my own. There is something very valuable in having [these] conversations… I love being able to appreciate our core similarities as human beings. In this way, every day seems to be a life lesson of sorts. I really appreciate the openness of people here and their willingness to share their stories with me.

I think that my experiences at Augsburg have given me both the professional and personal skills to best deal with these complicated conversations. It’s been great to see others share their cultures and opinions with me, while they also appreciate my opinions on the matter.

Developing confidence as a world citizen

In a very general sense, living alone abroad has led to an improved sense of self-confidence. Simply figuring out travel plans, using public transportation, practicing/using the language, and other difficulties that one has when living in a different country—all of these things have made me more confident in my ability to travel the world.

Of course, I have often made many mistakes as well, so these experiences are also very humbling. These confidence-inducing yet humbling experiences have made me more attune to the importance of developing cross-cultural understandings in the world. I am very, very thankful to be having such a valuable experience.

Advice to future Fulbrights: Share your story

As an English major, I was surprised at how valuable that particular education was to the development of my Fulbright application. I often found myself thinking about my application from the perspective of a script analysis: what is my “beginning, middle, and end”; how can I most effectively (and dramatically) present myself to the Fulbright committee; what makes me unique?

Therefore, I would suggest that you view your application as a tool to present your “story.” What makes you the way you are? How did you develop your interests? Why are you unique? Communicate these ideas in the most effective and interesting way you possibly can—make other people want to read your “story.”

Life after Fulbright

Before I begin my job search, I’m planning one final adventure upon my arrival back home. Over the last couple summers, I’ve canoed about 450 miles down the Mississippi River with my best friend. This upcoming summer, we will finish our trip down the river all the way to New Orleans. From New Orleans, we hope to bike south through Central and South America for a few months.

Career-wise, I hope to eventually get a job with a film or television production company. Luckily, while here in the Czech Republic, I’ve made many great friends from all corners of the United States. Many of them have already offered to introduce me to potential career connections and resources. While here, I also met a former film student who is now producing documentaries and short films for Czech television.

Fulbright Information Sessions

February 12 or February 13

12-1 p.m.

Lindell 301

Students of all years are encouraged to come because we will be discussing multiple Fulbright programs

Fulbright Summer Institutes: Students spend 3-6 weeks studying at a United Kingdom university during the summer. Seeking first-year and sophomore students.

Fulbright Student Program: Students spend a year abroad following college to teach English, attend graduate school, or conduct research. Seeking junior and senior students.

The post Experiencing the world: Engage with a community as a Fulbright Scholar appeared first on News and Media.

A 2007 Augsburg graduate who studied English, art history, and German, Oliver has worked as a staff member at Augsburg but has wanted to explore a career teaching or advising students. “I think I have known for a really long time that education was going to be my path, I just didn’t really know in what capacity.”

After graduation, Oliver began working in the student financial service center at Augsburg and began her master’s program shortly thereafter. She says the MAE program allowed her to pursue a career in education and eventually led her to apply for the Fulbright teaching award.

“Teaching abroad has always been an aspiration of mine,” she says. Growing up in a multicultural family—her mother is Croatian and her brother was born in Germany—Oliver was always interested in people of different cultures. She traveled to Thailand as an undergraduate student to teach English with professor Kathy Swanson on a faculty-led summer program and also spent time abroad with family after college. “It felt like I was sort of destined to do this eventually.”

Oliver feels like the Fulbright teaching opportunity has come at the perfect time. “I am at the point of finishing my master’s and figuring out what I want to do. This may open doors for me in areas where I am passionate,” she says.

While she appreciates the recognition that goes with receiving the Fulbright scholarship, Oliver wants to give accolades to Dixie Shafter and Andrea Sanow of Augsburg’s URGO office for their work in assisting with the Fulbright application. “I feel like they went through revision after revision maybe 500 times with me,” she says. Year-round the pair coach students in applying for awards, fellowships, scholarships, and to graduate school.

“This is something to be celebrated by all of Augsburg,” Oliver adds. “A lot of my growth has happened here, and that has led me to be a Fulbright Scholar. It’s due to Augsburg’s work as well as my own.”

Read more about Jennifer’s experiences on her blog, .

The post Another Fulbright Scholar heads to Germany appeared first on News and Media.

In a more positive light, only 3 days in and I’ve already learned so much and feel more and more honored each day that I hear about all the things I get to do and all the people I am majorly going to impact. The Fulbright program in Indonesia is the third largest one out of all 130 countries where this program takes place. As a group, roughly, we will teach English to 12,000 students.

In addition to teaching, we have the opportunity to create and star in radio and television programs that teach English; we met with the media man from the US Embassy. There is also going to be a competition between all 32 schools that all the ETA’s will teach at; a words competition where we will decide the theme and they can write a song, poem, essay, dance according to that theme. I will travel with my winning student back to the city of Jakarta where all the finalists will compete, and the winner receives a full scholarship to an American University-truly a dream for these kids.

We’ve also been appointed to recruit people/teachers/students to apply for various scholarships. Scholarships for the working class to go to community college, for Indonesian English teachers to go to an American university and take English classes, for high school students to go to an American university, and the list goes on. We have to judge based on one’s skills if I think they are qualified and have a chance at whichever scholarship. I loved being the peer advisor in the study abroad office at Augsburg, and now I feel like my roll in international education was just upped tenfold. Everyone here dreams of going to the States, and most Indonesians don’t have any idea about these opportunities. And now I can potentially change their lives.

Jakarta as a city is crowded, polluted, intense, and the people are so amazingly nice and so fun to interact with. Traffic is crazy, there are no lanes or crosswalks, thank gosh there are at least stop and go lights. They have over 130 malls here in Indonesia where you can buy almost anything. And they are so crazy annoying; filled with weird smells and up and down escalators that are not anywhere near each other, at different random spots on the floor. Myself and one other ETA got lost for an hour in a mall yesterday; nice bonding experience.

The food is so good and cheap; yesterday my dinner cost $1.50. Everywhere we go there is fresh guava and pineapple juice my favorite! Cabs are also like a few dollars for really long distances, so that’s nice too. Basically everything is so cheap and according to Indonesian economics “I” am a millionaire; I always wanted to be a millionaire, just never thought it would happen.

I’ve been learning about where my school is. I’ll be living in an ORANGUTAN NATIONAL PARK, yup that’s right be jealous. This is also the reason for such tight security measures.

Well that’s all for now. All the ETA’s are going out to dinner tonight as a group to bond our today’s experience and support each other. We are going to a restaurant where we are gonna eat goat lungs, chicken necks, cow intestines, and we’ll see what else. I’ll let all ya’ll know how it tastes!

The post Emma Sutton checks in from Indonesia appeared first on News and Media.

“My mother is very opinionated,” she said. “so I was automatically driven to investigate for myself if the things she said were true.”

And investigate she did. Sutton’s quest to learn about others eventually brought her to Greece, Turkey, the British Virgin Islands, and to Tanzania. This August, she will begin a nine-month assistantship in Indonesia teaching English as a Fulbright Scholar.

In her studies abroad, Sutton learned about “different” people—about ways of living and thinking that were nothing like those she experienced in Catholic grade school and high school. “You need to have some background about people to communicate with them when you don’t have the same personal experiences.” She believes her studies abroad and the Fulbright program will help her better connect as a nurse and teacher to people around the world.

After she completes the Fulbright program, Sutton plans to become a nurse and work with underserved populations in the U.S. Her long-term goal is to work internationally in areas confronting poverty, war, and natural disaster.

Sutton came to Augsburg for two reasons—to play volleyball and to study science. She was interested in attending a Division III school because she wanted to participate in a sport and have time to focus on academics. Augsburg gave her not only the opportunity to play volleyball for three years but to study biology and chemistry on campus and abroad.

Last fall, she spent a semester on the island of Zanzibar studying coastal ecology and conducting research on the biodiversity of fish in the Nyange reef. She spent hours under water, identifying species and learning how the fishing industry has affected the reef.

As a first-generation college student, Sutton said the Fulbright application process was challenging but rewarding. “It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.” Between a full class schedule and working part time as the peer advisor for Augsburg Abroad, she met with Dixie Shafer, director of Augsburg’s Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity program, to write and revise her application essay.

“It forced me to articulate what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,” she said. “At the end, I was proud. I told myself it was a great exercise even if I didn’t get the scholarship.”

The post Fulbright Scholar will teach in Indonesia appeared first on News and Media.