 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for your patience. We know that there's been some technical difficulties, and we will continue to share the link in the chat for assistance. My name is Danielle Brinson, and I'm delighted to join you today. As a moderator and a Fulbright program officer at the United States Department of States Bureau of educational and cultural affairs. I am also both a proud graduate of Spellman College and a former administrator there where I let alumni affairs for more than a decade. I want to tell you a bit about the full bike program. It is the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the US government. And this panel will be focused on being black abroad in the full bright program. The full bright program has fostered mutual understanding between US citizens and the citizens of other countries for 76 years. Each year the full bright program supports around 8000 students scholars artists teachers and professionals from the United States and 160 countries all around the world. Since 1946 over 400,000 people of all backgrounds have received full bright grants. Earlier last summer, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona released a joint statement of principles in support of international education, which outlines the many benefits of international education and the need for all Americans to be equipped with global and cultural competencies. The conference supports and contributes to the goals of the joint statement from the State Department and Department of Education, especially the principle that US participants in international exchanges must reflect the diversity of the United States. Last year we celebrated the full bright program 75th anniversary, which gave us an important opportunity to reflect on the enduring impact of these exchanges, as well as the impressive diversity, innovation and creativity of full brighters. Secretary Blinken also touted the many contributions of the program when he said members of the full bright community are change makers who care deeply about the problems facing our world today from stopping coven 19 to countering threats to democracy. And through full bright, they help strengthen our world from classrooms, villages, universities and cities across the globe. Regarding HBCUs in particular last spring we recognize 20 HBCUs as full bright HBCU institutional leaders for their noteworthy engagement with the program and held a HBCU symposium featuring remarks by Fulbright alum, Dr. Ruth Simmons, the president of Prairie View A&M University. In the chat, please share and shout out where you're coming from and what HBCU or other college or university you represent. As we look at the 76 years of the program, the strength of Fulbright is in its alumni who include current or former heads of state or government, Nobel laureates, Pulitzer prize recipients and alumni like renowned poet and activist Dr. Maya Angelou, and computer scientist Joy Blumwini featured in Coded Bias, a documentary now streaming on Netflix and thousands of other alumni both in and out of the academic world making impacts on campuses, societies and the world. We're excited to host today's full bright panel and encourage all of you to apply to the program to benefit from global engagement, campus internationalization and mutual understanding. I would like to thank one of our implementing partners, the Institute for International Education or IIE for its long standing partnership with us in managing the Fulbright program and specifically the student program. And with that, I have the pleasure of handing over the reins to Mr. Lee Rivers, IIE's US student program outreach specialist to share information about the Fulbright US student program and different opportunities for US students to venture abroad. And following that, we will have our alumni panel. The next voice you will hear is Lee Rivers. Thank you so much, I really appreciate the introduction and welcome everyone. As I said my name is Lee Rivers. I'm an outreach and recruitment specialist at the Institute of International Education. I've been with the organization for a while since 2008. And I work on the Fulbright US student program to establish some credibility I always like to share that as an undergraduate student I was a Gilman scholar to Australia, as well as a full bright hands in the air and whenever I reflect back on those experiences and my career. It's easy to see how my experiences back then really led me to where I am today and it's safe to say that I wouldn't be here talking to you today about this program. If it wasn't for those experiences that I had so I'm very grateful to the Gilman scholarship program as well as the full bright program for those opportunities. Before we begin talking a little bit more details about the full bright US student program I just wanted to quickly roll through why specifically why those that are coming from HPC use should be or maybe thinking about the full bright program and looking into the opportunities. First and foremost, if everybody could mute themselves that would be amazing. One more important than that is HPC use our priority for the State Department. I know you've already heard that but I just want you to know it's not a passing craze. We have a long term commitment to HPC use international education is also an institutional priority. Many campuses have mission statements teaching objectives as well as larger institutional goals at HPC use that align with the full bright program so just one example comes from all corn state. The foreign strives to repair students to be well rounded future leaders of high character, and to be successful in the global marketplace of the 21st century. So becoming a more globally engaged citizen is an advantage. Also career preparation, developing academically, as well as professional skills, gaining exposure to new research to educational systems to teaching methods is a strong reason why you should look at the full bright program. And it's also an opportunity for you to build relationships expand your network by collaborating with with individuals across the world. And finally, in my opinion, and this hopefully is shared by many of you on the call. I believe that HPC use do mentorship better than any other institutions out there, and mentorship is a key. So working through your full bright application sort of walking through that process. And so those are just some reasons why you should be thinking about or looking into the full bright program. So I'm going to cover a little bit of the history. I think the nail did a great job of sort of setting the stage here. Full bright is the flagship educational and cultural exchange program of the US government. Our goal as outlined here is to foster mutual understanding to build relationships between people here in the United States and individuals abroad. And the way that we accomplish that are through these different educational activities. So the program as the nail mentioned that we're working with a lot of different people over 8000 individuals each year so it's a very large complex and dynamic program. I like to look at as the as sort of a four way intersection where there are US students as well as scholars that are going abroad to do research to study to teach, but there are also foreign students and scholars that are coming here to the United States to do those things. Obviously today we're going to be focusing on the full bright US student program and those objectives. I also think it's important to note, not only who our sponsors are, you know, at the at the State Department the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the fact that I is at the privilege of administering this program for its 76 year but we also have by national partners that help with the program design and administration of the full bright program. And so overseas we partner with what we call full bright commissions, and we also partner with us embassies. In fact, they're the ones that help us design the country summaries that are listed on the on the website. And so one of the first important things are to note about you know these partnerships and all these players that are involved is that every country is different from the next. We're working with over 140 different countries, and it's going to be really important as you are looking into this opportunity that you are matching sort of who you are as an individual what it is that you want to accomplish with the goals that are outlined by that specific country, making sure that you match your preference, their preferences, expectations and qualities with with those that you possess. So, at the end of the day, full bright is a prestigious award it is an elite, but not elitist award, but the main difference between this opportunity and many other prestigious awards out there is that goal, where we're working on building a fostering mutual understanding building relationships, and it really kind of comes down to people to people diplomacy. Now really quickly, I mean we are doing this session. Oh, lost my mouse. We are doing this session for HPC use and so I think it's important to highlight our focus on diversity and inclusion. I understand that there is not one type of American, nor is there one type of American experience. And so our program is designed to reach individuals geographic locations and institutions that have been historically underrepresented in the program. And I believe there that opportunities are open to people regardless of their ethnicities, national origin, sex, race, religion, ability levels, sexual orientation and the list goes on. So, I just want you to know that you are welcome in this program, regardless of where you're coming from, and what your background is. So, quick, just want to jump into some of the eligibility requirements with the Fulbright US student program. It is open to all fields of studies disciplines area interests from the hard scientists says, all the way to those that are in the creative and performing applicants must through the Fulbright US student program must be US citizens at the time of application, and they must have a conferred bachelor degree, or equivalent before the start of the grant. Another point here is that you cannot have a PhD at the time of application. So the way that I like to describe this is, these are two life events here, earning a bachelor's degree and earning a PhD. And any time between those two life events, one is eligible to apply for the Fulbright US student program, regardless of whether you are enrolled in an Institute of higher ed or not. We have many graduating seniors that choose to engage and participate in the Fulbright US student program. A lot of folks at the graduate level as well. But just as many folks outside of academia are applying for the Fulbright US student program and having success. So as long as you have that bachelor's degree and don't have a PhD at the time of application, then you are eligible to apply for the Fulbright US student program. And then the last point there, I already kind of talked about this, we're working with 140 different countries and so what you're going to find is that every country is a little bit different so be sure to match who you are with what that country is looking for. Okay, well let's talk a little bit about some of the big picture statistics here, as well as the two grant types that are available through the student program. Big picture, we award about 2200 awards each year to those 140 different countries. As you can see here we have two different types of awards to sort of overarching grant categories. And I'm going to keep things at a very high level today, because we are so limited on time but I will share with you some resources that you can tap into as you are going along this journey of gathering information about the program. So the first opportunity is what we call study research awards. These are an opportunity to build your own adventure, right so candidates for open study or research. These include proposing independent study or research abroad, you may be doing independent research while auditing or taking courses as a non degree seeking student at a foreign university, or you may be directly enrolled in a graduate program abroad. So with the independent research, Emmanuel is going to talk a little bit about about this as well as the graduate study. This is where you are basically proposing an intellectually compelling and feasible project. So you're deciding the who, what, where, when and how of your project. You're coming up with that proposal, and that's what you're submitting and then if accepted doing while you're in the host country. So again, this is open to all fields of studies and disciplines. And if something hasn't been done in the past, we're excited to see you do it. Graduate degree enrollment is sort of that second option that falls underneath that study research umbrella. Keep in mind that you are only allowed to apply for one type of grants so you're either choosing a study research grant, or you're choosing the second type of English teaching scholarship. But this graduate degree enrollment, this is where your primary activity is going to be enrolling in a master's degree program abroad. And so you're taking courses while abroad. In the proposal you're talking about why you're going to that specific country, why you're enlisting in that specific university and that specific program. And then coming up with an academic sort of an academic question that you want answered through the coursework that you're going to be engaging in. Sort of the third path I touched on briefly before sort of a hybrid between those two, where you are engaging in research an independent research project, but while you're doing that you may be auditing courses as a non degree seeking student at a foreign university. So what we've seen in the past is people may be taking methodology classes language classes, maybe a history of course. These courses are directly tied to the research project or giving you further insight into what it is that you're researching on on the day to day level. And the last option is for those that are in the creative and performing arts. Again, this falls under that category of study research awards, and this is for those that may be coming from a set design background, or you may be a musician, or anything else that kind of falls under the creative and performing arts category creative writer. This is where you're able to take your skills to the next level in an international context. Moving forward, let's talk a little bit about the English teaching assistantships. This is the fastest growing area of the Fulbright program. And we've got two alumni that are going to be talking a bit more about their experiences ETA is I'm really excited to hear from them a bit later. So this is where you are helping non native English speakers learn the English language, as well as teaching them about us culture from your perspective. All right, so with this opportunity placements are being made by the countries that one is applying to we have over 70 countries, 75 countries that one may apply to, and these placements can be it K through 12 institutions, or they may be at colleges or universities. Again, it's a it's a large dynamic program where more information is fleshed out about the country opportunities on our webpage us dot full bright online.org. So let me quickly talk a little bit about some of the benefits. Maybe some of our alumni may touch on this a bit, but just know that round trip airfare, a monthly stipend is included. Depending upon the country that you're going to and the cost of living in that host country. Some other benefits include accident and sickness benefits. And then there's a list here of other possible benefits depending on the country and the award that that you're engaging some of those may include research allowance. Some may include tuition support for dependents or enhancement activities. And then we always like to stress the benefit that is provided for those that have disabilities, both visible and invisible disabilities. As I said before, it's our goal to make sure that these programs represent the diversity that makes up the United States. And so we are all about providing resources support for those that do have disabilities and one of our major partners in this effort is mobility International USA, as they have a lot of resources to help students through the application process as well as provide support while in country. Some of the other benefits are listed on the screen here but as I said before, really the number one benefit of becoming a full brighter is becoming part of this elite, but not elitist network of scholars worldwide. And there are ways to stay connected with the community once, once you return from your experience abroad. That could be through full bright associations. We, the State Department has opportunities and has a website to help alumni stay engaged with the program. And then I always like mentioning the NCE the the non competitive eligibility that one gets by becoming a full brighter, which can help those that want to fast track into perhaps jobs at the State Department or on a federal level, help you get into those positions. So I know that I'm moving through this quickly and there's obviously a lot more information that's out there. And if you are interested in learning more about the program. We're going to have some opportunities coming up here in the very near future for you to get more of the details that are out there so we've got a few webinars that are coming up. We posted here for those that can't. Our first webinar is going to be on March 29 at 2pm Eastern Standard Time. This is going to be sort of a general overview of the full bright program. And then we have another getting started selecting the right award type. That's going to take place on April 12 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time. I think it's also very important to note that our application is not currently open for this next cycle, our next application cycle for the 2324 fiscal year, our final year is going to be on March 31. And so you still have a little bit of time before the application opens. And I recommend spending this time going through the website and learning more about the opportunities that exist. Going to the country summaries pages and and really kind of learning what those countries are looking for in applicants. Bear in mind that what you're going to be seeing is from the last application cycle. All of that information is going to be updated come March 31. Another thing that I want to point out is that we have a vast network of what we call full bright program advisors FPAs for short across. I think 1300 institutions in the United States, and these advisors are tasked with doing outreach and recruitment on their campus, as well as in more importantly, advising students through the application process so holding students through the application process and and really being a resource for them as they're as they're going through the application. So if you are an alum of an HBC you or you're an early career professional, I recommend that you reach out to your most recent institution and and identify who that full bright program advisor is by going to our website under full bright program advisor you can do a search by institution, and I recommend reaching out to them just shooting a quick message, letting them know you're interested in the program. That way they can be in touch with you to talk about the next steps. Speaking of next steps. Let's just wanted to highlight a few more resources that are available. We're, we're all over social media, whether it is YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, you name it. You can find tons of great information out there about the full bright US student program and and also hear from individuals like the alumni that we're about to hear from shortly about how they were able to navigate the the application process, as well as navigate their their time in the host country. So I highly recommend that you you connect with us. You follow us you engage with us in the social media sphere to learn more about the program and stay connected with us. The last thing that I that I want to, I guess share with you before, before I hand it over to our panelists is that, you know, when our panelists were sitting in your shoes when they were gathering information about the program. I just want to let you know that they had they had fears. They had doubts. They had questions. They had uncertainty. They may not have had, you know, their parents or their friends backing them 100% as they were pursuing these opportunities. But they took the time to reflect about, you know, reflect on who they who they are and what types of goals they wanted to accomplish and came to the conclusion that full bright would be a good match for them and could give them opportunities that they may not have otherwise. So you're no different than anyone else that has gone through this process before. What I recommend doing is connecting with your full right program advisors on campus, reaching out to an alum like the ones that you're about to hear from. And just understanding that this is a process. It's a journey. As of today, you are probably not full brightable. I just kind of making up words. It's going to be a process it's going to take time it's going to take numerous drafts of your application before you can get to that point where you are worthy if you will, of being considered a full brighter. So with that, I'm done and I would like to just pass it on to our next speaker. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you very, very much, Lee. We appreciate you. And Lee will be plugging links in the chat about the program as well, so that you can refer to that. I want to shift to our panel today, which features three full bright alumni who are also HBC alumni. So we're going to discuss their international exchange experiences with the full bright program. At this time I have the distinct pleasure of welcoming Ashley Cheyenne and Emmanuel. As you will unmute to join the conversation I'd like to ask Ashley to start us off by introducing yourself and sharing your HBC connections and full bright program involvement. Hi, everyone. My name is Ashley Brown Greer. I am a current PhD student at Howard University in the higher education leadership and policy studies program. I am a two time HBC graduate Talady good college for undergrad and Morgan State University and I'll finish it off at Howard and hopefully this year sometime. I was a full bright English teaching assistant to Malaysia in 2017. I recently reapplied. So my fingers are crossed for research to South Africa. And my experience as a full bright as a full brighter highlighted a disparity amongst HBC students who participate in government funded international exchange programs. And to, you know, help spread this knowledge to HBC students both undergraduate and graduate as well as fellowship advisors. I created international HBC you exchange which partners with born full bright Gilman and critical language scholarship as well as the State Department. Thank you Ashley Cheyenne. Absolutely. Thank you to mail thank you everybody for allowing me to join today. Everyone who knows me knows that I love talking about my full bright experience so thank you guys for the opportunity to share. Again, my name is Cheyenne voice my pronouns are she her I'm located in Washington DC, although I'm originally from Detroit Michigan. I attended Spelman College for undergrad where I studied international studies and Japanese studies and then I moved to DC. Well actually, then I did my full bright, which I will talk about and then I came to DC, where I attended American University for my masters which was an international peace and conflict resolution. I was an English teaching assistant like Ashley to Malaysia in 2015. It was an amazing experience that honestly, it has such a meaningful impact personally but then it also really shaped the trajectory of my career so everything that I ended up doing after my full bright was very much based on the experience that I had while I was in country. I'm very passionate about education and creating access opportunities for people that are traditionally underrepresented in spaces. One of those spaces was global education and I spent the last four years five four years doing US China cross cultural exchange programming. But now I've actually taken that passion for creating access opportunities to the tech industry. I'm now in the strategic partnerships manager for the education partner program and HubSpot, where I essentially work with educators at HBCUs and Hispanic serving institutions and other MSIs to help create career readiness and workforce development programming. So again, even with a shift, you know, in career recently, everything that I got from my full bright experience has remained applicable and yeah it's brought me here today where I still enjoyed talking about it like it was just yesterday. So again, thank you guys for having me and I'm excited to share my experience. Thank you Cheyenne and I'll pass it to Emmanuel. Alright, hello everyone and thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. And my name is Emmanuel Johnson, I am currently based in Los Angeles, California, where I am a postdoc at USC. And my research looks at using artificial intelligence to essentially teach social skills. And I did my full bright at the University of Birmingham in 2013. And I won the full bright study awards for pursuit of masters in robotics. Prior to that I graduated from North Carolina and T Aggie pride. And yeah I think beyond what I do academically as opposed like I've also been a full bright alumni ambassador. I've always enjoyed speaking about full bright as the other panelists on here and also encouraging more specifically encouraging HBCU students to pursue the award for bright has made me a celebrity. I've met quite a few people who've seen my picture on the website. So thank you for that full bright and I look forward to this conversation with you all today. You're welcome Emmanuel. And all of all of these alumni and others are on our full bright 75.org website. So you can learn more about our full bright alums and as full bright alums today, we want to get your insight on your experience and experiences. And so I want to start with some questions and then we will leave time for q amp a from the audience we promise and you can put your questions in the chat. We will be pulling them now and asking them in just a little bit. I'm going to start with Emmanuel. Please speak broadly to share a high level summary of your full bright experience. What was it like being in the UK and just expound on your full bright experience. As I stated earlier pursued masters in robotics at the University of Birmingham in 2013. And I mean I think the experience was amazing. As a student and I hadn't traveled abroad. And so, for me that was my first time going to the UK. And from the day I stuff foot in the country to the day I left, I was mind blown, just the diversity of cultures and the amount of people who come from various parts of the world in the UK was amazing. The food that they brought in also I think having a cohort me through full bright that were based in different parts of the country also offered opportunity to travel in and connect with with students as well. I also volunteered at a local middle school. So I was helping students with math and science courses. And then also towards the end of my time in the UK full brain vitamin to this thing tank. And so we went to this location for about four or five days to discuss a variety of different topics. Interestingly, the question that was asked then was can governments keep up with the digital revolution and it's interesting to watch how all of that has played. So I think overall I enjoyed my full bright experience and it really sort of left that that bug in me to want to travel abroad. And so since then I've traveled to India Brazil, Japan, and a number of other countries. So that is awesome. And speaking of technology that might be a little bit of a delay so apologies if that is the case. Do you want to share your experience. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's funny because when I think about my, I think about my experience in Malaysia but I also think about the experience leading up to actually getting to Malaysia and so full bright was always something that I kind of heard of Spelman produces a lot of four writers and so I knew a lot of cool people who did for us I too wanted to be cool like them. And so it's something that I started considering you know very early on in my college experience one of the things that I also usually share is that I applied and I was an alternate so I am a living case of a baby can turn into a yes I was fully on my way to American to start graduate school when I got the call in like September or August of that you know I had a spot for me and if I wanted it I could go to Malaysia and so all of it was just a whirlwind you know getting getting to that point. But once I got to Malaysia I was actually placed in sick could I Malaysia, which is on the northern peninsula of Malaysia. It is very rural. As I mentioned I'm from Detroit, I went to school in Atlanta, I live in Washington DC. So I was not used to a rural environment necessarily, but it ended up being amazing and exactly what I needed at that time in my life. I was at a secondary school where I worked with students 13 to 18 about 300 students per week teaching just going in and out of different classes. I was very lucky and that the English department the teachers there in Malaysia, they were a bit younger, they were very open to new ideas and things like that and so that meant that I was able. I was kind of there to make English fun and exciting and be cool and talk to students and sort of just make English like a really exciting and enjoyable thing and so the thing that I do really like about the English teaching assistantship grant is that it allows you to bring what you're interested in to your space at least in Malaysia. So I, for example, am a musician really enjoy music and so I created a boy band and I had students singing and doing presentations all around, you know, throughout the year. I really love travel and so one of the biggest projects that I did was actually taking my students on designing and taking my students on a cultural exchange trip from Kedah to Kultukana Balusaba because I wanted my students to be able to have the experience of leaving the very homogenous state of Kedah and experiencing and learning about their own country and so these were all ideas that I came up with while I was on the grant and I did the work and I talked to the people and I got all of the permission that I needed to really be able to run these projects and make them a great experience for my students and so when I think back on it, I really see my whole experience is just the time where I was able to learn more about myself, learn more about the culture that I was in and everything that I did was about creating those connections because I said by the time I leave here, I want the people that I've come into contact with to know about me, understand what my experience as an American is and really, you know, think positively about the program and myself and so yeah it ended up being a great experience like I said and I learned a lot along the way. Thank you Cheyenne, they were lucky to have you as a teacher. Ashley, what was your experience like? Like Cheyenne, anyone who knows me knows about my full bright experience, it just really changed my life. I was amongst the oldest in my cohort, I was 28 at the time, and I was concerned that my, you know, teachers and students would be like oh no no ma'am you're too old, but they really embraced me, I was placed in rural Morang Terenganu, a really beautiful city, small city, and I really engaged with my school and the teachers, I have kind of an old soul so I know my teachers really, you know, they really embraced me and you know tried to get me acclimated to the host community. And then some of the projects that I did with my students, now anyone, I am a picky eater, and so I came up with this great idea to create a poetry recipe book, because I was just so amazed by the foods that I probably never tried, but I felt the need to share not only just the Malaysian food culture with the Americans, but to also partner with schools in America to share their favorite recipes. And so they wrote poems about their favorite foods and shared recipes and macaroni and cheese was the favorite recipe. Another thing that I did with my students was we visited the US Embassy in Malaysia as well as the Fulbright Commission, and so that was really exciting for my students because some of them had never been on an airplane before. And so it was just a really amazing experience to just take them to KL but to also introduce them to the staff at the Embassy so that they could learn more about the American culture and why they're placed in Malaysia. Thank you, Ashley. I wanted to ask the next question to ask about what factored into your decision to go abroad with the Fulbright program and specifically why you chose the country that you did and what you wanted to do, whether it was teaching English or research and I'll start with Cheyenne. Sure. So right before I was applying for the Fulbright, I actually spent my junior year at Spelman abroad in Japan. And so that was a full year being an exchange student. And so for me, that really ignited the fire of me wanting to travel and be abroad and also be a part of creating connections between cultures. And so I came back to Spelman for my senior year, sort of ready to just hit the ground running on whatever was going to help me continue to further that desire. And so a big part of applying for Fulbright, of course, was the professional development experience of it all, the network. I knew that this was a field I wanted to be in and I wanted to take advantage of those opportunities. But what I'll also say is what was really important for me was being able to be a part of representing the United States and showing what the United States looked like. I remembered when I went abroad for the first time, which was when I was in high school in Japan, nobody around me was doing that. Nobody knew about like, you know, studying abroad. That was just not an option really, you know, where I was at. And so I had always had this really deep desire to want to be a part of showing what the US looked like. And it really happened. When I arrived in Malaysia, they did not think that they were going to be getting a black girl from Detroit, you know, to be the English teaching assistant. And it became this experience of me learning from them, but then also, you know, members of my community learning from me. And it was like, well, we're all here together. So we might as well, you know, do the best we can with this. And so I was able to do a lot of programming that reflected my culture and things that were very important to me while also being very open to learning. So I went to all the weddings, I went to all the holidays, I went to every anything that my students and teachers invited me to, you know, I made sure that I was open to that. And in general, I think also for me, it was an opportunity to again, just continue to be abroad. I, like I said, I spent time in East Asia, I knew I wanted to be in Southeast Asia. I knew I wanted to continue studying these areas and graduate school. So I'll, I think my decision was part strategic, but then also just following my heart and doing what I wanted to do. I wanted to go back abroad. And so, you know, I made sure that it was something that I would work really hard to try to achieve. So I'm going to be shy and I think that's very insightful and I'll turn it to Emmanuel and then Ashley to talk about what factored into your decision to go abroad. Yeah, I think in undergrad I spent most of my summers in research labs. And at the time, there weren't many programs that exposed students to robotics. So graduate when I was graduating, I was looking for master's program, but I didn't want to just pursue a degree. I also want to be exposed to different cultures and different people. Now, the only problem is, I only speak English. And so I realized it may be a little challenging to go to a country where I'm picking up the language, trying to pursue a technical master's. This all happened at the UK had a program in robotics. And then also, the UK has a long history of producing some of the early pioneers in computer science and as well as robotics and artificial intelligence. So to me, it just felt like a very nice fit. And so that's what led me to pursue my Fulbright in the UK. So at the time that I applied to Fulbright, I actually had no clue about the program. I was sitting in my GA ship office one day. And I was like, I think I'm interested in teaching abroad. I was in a master's of arts and teaching program at Morgan. And I was like, that would make sense. And my previous exchange or study abroad opportunity, I studied Italian opera in Pisa, Italy. And I was like, okay, I got a taste of this travel bug. I want to try to apply for Fulbright. So I actually applied twice to the ETA program the first time to Vietnam. And I made it to this in my finalist round. And I took that same application and submitted it for Malaysia the following year and was successful. And kind of like what Emmanuel said, I had, I took Spanish in college, I took French, but no one said, hey, pick one language and stick with it. So I took both and really didn't retain anything. And so when I was selecting countries, of course I had to choose one that where I could speak English and so Vietnam and Malaysia were both perfect. And so good thing everyone in Malaysia, well, not everyone, you know, English is a popular language in Malaysia or not popular, but it's a spoken language in Malaysia, and I picked up some Bahasa Malayu. So. And that's what these experiences are all about. I want to move us into being conscious of our time. And we have a few questions from the audience but first I'll ask, do you have advice for students interested in applying for the Fulbright program and where and how they should start. And I will begin with Emmanuel. I think it's interesting. So many of the points that I had I think Lee mentioned earlier so I really want to reiterate. One, reach out to your school's FPA, as well as just the General International Office because they've been doing this for a while. And they will be a good fit. I'm not from the school who've participated in different programs, even if it's not necessarily the one that you're applying for. I think generally people have insights on what to think how to approach these opportunities. Let's say your school doesn't have an international office or you're unable to find an alumni because similar to, similarly in my case, we had an international office at ANT, but we hadn't had a Fulbright awardee. And so in that case, I would suggest reaching out to Fulbright ambassadors. I've been an ambassador. And I think ambassadors are very open to talking to students. We're here to help you. We're here to provide guidance. And so that would be the best individuals to contact. Beyond that, I will definitely and highly encourage that you start early. You're going to go through multiple drafts because what you find is that as you start to write these essays and try to pitch yourself, you're also discovering who you are. You know, because I think as you're going through undergrad, you're not thinking about all those amazing experiences that you're having. And so when you get to writing your essays, you start realizing like, wow, I've done a lot. Before I condense it all to one or two pages. And I think, you know, starting early allows you to get various drafts going and have people who know you well. Look at those drafts and provide feedback and time for you to submit a stellar application. Thank you. And FPA for those who may not know, we have a lot of acronyms in the government, Fulbright program advisor. Most campuses will have them. Some may not, but there's someone on your campus professors who can help you. And Lee, my colleague Lee will put those links in the chat again for the student program and he mentioned the FPA connections and I will pass it to Cheyenne to share your advice on how and where to start. Yeah, I mean, I echo everything that Emmanuel already said the top advice that I had number one was definitely start thinking about it early and for a little context for me as someone who applied in my senior year of undergrad. As I mentioned before, I was abroad in my junior year. So that's whole summer before my senior year I was still abroad and when I came back in September, I was already behind the folks that have been thinking about it, you know, over the summer and in their junior year. And so it's something that you want to start thinking about really want to start connecting with FPAs alumni from your institution, alumni ambassadors, I'm an alumni ambassador as well. You want to really start thinking about it. And the only other piece that I'll kind of share is that when you're writing your essays. Be true to yourself and who you are because I think that you are the only person that could convince the screening committees and the different groups of people who read the applications that you are the best choice. It's really about pitching you and and what you're going to bring to the program and what you're going to get out of it in my application I wrote, you know about I'm somebody who dreams big. I don't really know what I want to do with my career I'm figuring it out but I'm going to make a difference in the world and so here we are. And I think that being really true to yourself and just making sure that you articulate what the value was going to be in the range is really important. So yeah those are just the tips that I would add but yeah you can do it so apply anybody out there thinking about applying apply. We just encourage all of you to apply and get all the help that you need ask for the help use the student use the program office hours for the US student program, use your professors, alumni, all the resources. I want to share a question from the audience, and then we will close out the panel. And thank you all for for staying with us as we had the technical issues in the beginning. We have a question from Nicole Halat, and I hope I pronounced your name correctly. Ashley partly inspired my proposal, my, excuse me my proposed dissertation research, which has to do with the identity negotiation process for Fulbrighters from minoritized backgrounds. Ashley given what can often be a complicated even fraught relationship with majority culture of the US. How did you navigate suddenly being in a position where you're an official representative of the United States. Sorry, can you repeat the question sorry. I can. And if anyone else wants to answer as well please. Can everyone hear me okay. Perfect from Nicole Halat, Ashley partly inspired my proposed dissertation research, which has to do with the identity negotiation process for Fulbrighters from minoritized backgrounds. Ashley given what what can often be a complicated even fraught relationship with the majority culture of the US. How did you navigate suddenly being in a position where you're an official representative of the United States. That's a great question so I think for me. While I was in Malaysia I came to this realization like you're American but you're also a black American. And so that's what my students got that's what my community got and so I thought, you know, that's my life. Let me share what I can and so being black in Malaysia was very different because in my small community, they, many people had never seen a black American before and so I was always just identified as being African and so I would have to say, you know, I've never been to the continent. My family has never been I am as American as American can come. And so I think having those conversations really helped the people in my community and just the people I came into contact with even an Uber rides or grab rides, you know, really help them to understand about America and the different and the diversity that we have in the country. Thank you Ashley. Does anyone else want to respond before we close. Yeah, I'll just add a quick point and I think Ashley and I had similar experiences in Malaysia so I echo everything that she said but what I'll also just add is that at no point that I feel that the full bright program was asking me to be what a version of American they wanted. And I think by sending me they actually got kind of a lot out of this deal, because my first month in, in my school, it was February because the program starts in January so I did black history month programming all month because that's what I knew I was in a new place and I could I was figuring out things and getting my bearings. And so you know that's what I did and I think it was a great benefit for me and then also my students and so also within the community bringing my experience and being authentic about who I am was I think it was really crucial to making my experience what it was if I had been trying to navigate in a way that I thought, you know, the State Department or four bar wanted me to then I probably would have gotten stuck in trying to achieve something that, you know, wouldn't I wouldn't be able to be who I am so I do think that that's something that you not to say that I didn't have challenges while I was in Malaysia I definitely be it with folks in Malaysia but then also members of my cohort, but I think that that is the experience of exchange and so being willing to be in those situations and bring your authentic self is actually how we help ourselves move to a better place so. And thank you all, Emmanuel Ashley Cheyenne for being your authentic selves today and sharing your time and talents. And we certainly wish you the best as you continue in your endeavors as we wish the audience. This has been a really great conversation and opportunity to learn from you about the full bright program and there will be two more full bright panels this afternoon intersectionality as a black full brighter abroad at 4pm. And we'll discuss the full bright US scholar program for faculty administrators at 5pm this afternoon. Before we come to a close we encourage all of you again please apply to the full bright program and thank you for spending your time with the State Department today have an excellent afternoon.