Anderson going to Estonia with help of Fulbright Scholar Program

Claire Smith

Staff writer

csmith110@murraystate.edu

Photo courtesy of Grace Anderson

The Fulbright Scholar Program is an international education and exchange program that is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program offers teaching and research grants in over 125 countries. 

Autumn “Grace” Anderson, senior from Huntsville, Alabama, earned an English Teaching Assistant award to teach English in Estonia.

“Some of the things I will be doing are serving as a resource in conversation groups, providing small group instruction, assisting students with reading and writing English, and organizing American culture-related activities,” Anderson said.

The program allows recipients to meet, work and live with people in their host country. The grants last anywhere from nine months to a year.

“It was a somewhat rigorous process, but I had great faculty advising me throughout,” Anderson said. “In that application you have to include a statement of grant purpose about what you are going to do while in your country and a personal statement about why you want to participate in the program.”

Through Murray State there is a committee review for a joint recommendation of a student to the program. Once Anderson had all the materials to apply she waited several months before finding out she was a semi-finalist.

“I couldn’t believe that I had actually gotten it because I had told myself again and again that I wouldn’t,” Anderson said. “Getting the email notification saying ‘Congrats!’ was too surreal.”

Latricia Trites, professor of TESOL and English at Murray State, works with Fulbright applicants.

“I have met with at least three students, two of which did get accepted into the Fulbright program,” Trites said. “I have read their statements of purpose and their bio information and helped them to revise these statements so that they reflected what the review team at Fulbright is looking for.”

Trites has been a reviewer for the Fulbright program for the last five years and has participated on the campus interview team twice with both of the applicants being accepted as a Fulbright ETA.

“When I talked with both of them, I told them that they should be honest about who they are, what their plans are and what they have learned about the country to which they hope to go,” Trites said. “I told them not to have grandiose plans for activities outside of the actual teaching, but should set more realistic goals for community activities.”

Trites said she discusses with the applicants the types of things reviewers are looking and what things can turn them off.

“Having been a Fulbright Scholar as an academic advisor, supervising 16 ETAs (Taiwan 2008-09), I also share with them my practical experiences in an effort to help them see the larger picture about what the ETA experience is and what opportunities are possible,” Trites said.

Carole Inman, a student development counselor for the Honors College, helped Anderson during the application process.

“Knowing the end of your junior year is the ideal time to start preparing,” Inman said. “The application is due Oct. 5 and as soon as you get back to school we start meeting probably six or seven times for an hour or two each working on the application.”

The application has to be well thought out and include a personal statement and a statement of purpose that can only be one page, meaning that every single word has to count.

“Grace was an education major and she found that Estonia has an excellent educational system,” Inman said. “Part of the Fulbright wants to know that there is no way you can go to any other country but this country.

This country was the perfect match because it had the specific program Anderson was looking for.

A total of 29 Fulbright applicants applied to Estonia with only three of them receiving the scholarship. One other important aspect of the application process is three professor recommendations.

“Honestly, when I read hers they knew her so well,” Inman said. “It really is a testament. When you are in college you really need to know your professors. They wrote incredible stuff.”

Anderson will be the second student from Murray State to be awarded the scholarship in the last two years. The school also currently has four Fulbright recipients from other countries.

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