Adam Tart - Mitchell Scholarship 2008-2009 - January 21, 2009

Wow, where to begin... I left off my last "Reflection on Ireland" with anticipation of all the new activities I could enjoy after my shoulder healed, so I suppose I should start by saying now that my shoulder has healed (from its dislocation during my second week in Ireland), I have been even more thoroughly enjoying my time here on the Emerald Isle than before! This is due largely to the following three factors:

1) I am no longer injured.

2) I am actively participating in the UCC Ultimate Frisbee Club, which is loads of fun and provides a great opportunity to meet people and travel around the country (for tournaments).

3) I am actively participating in the UCC Mountaineering Club.

I think the third one is perhaps the most important. If there is one thing I can recommend above all else to do with your time in Ireland, it is to join the mountaineering club (if one exists at your university)! The experiences with the club have so far been absolutely, incredibly, superbly rewarding. So far I've gotten to hike up the Galtee Mountains in Ireland's "Golden Vale" region, Purple Mountain in the Macgillycuddy's Reeks in County Kerry, and the Knockmealdown Mountains on the border of Counties Tipperary and Waterford. Each hike I go on, I fall in love with the country more and more, as the views from the mountain tops overlooking the Irish countryside below are some of the most breathtaking, inspiring, and, dare I say, magical sights I have ever seen.

But it is not just the rewarding views that make the Mountaineering Club so wonderful. Rather, the fact that each hike is more of an expedition/adventure/bonding-experience carries more weight in my high opinion of the Club. Unlike the hikes that I'm used to (mostly in the Southeast and on the Appalachian Trail), the hikes here have no trails, no trailblazes, no paths. I couldn't believe my ears on the first hike when the guy leading the group looked at his map, looked to the top of the mountain, looked back at his map, then looked up and said "Well, I guess we're just going to have to find some way across this river here and then go up whichever way gets us to the top."

This adventurous spirit, combined with the relentless rain and the ubiquitous bog-like terrain, makes the hikes more like expeditions than hikes. (In fact, on that same first hike, we got so high up the mountain that the rain turned into hail, and the wind was literally blowing people off the mountain. We had to huddle behind a rock for thirty minutes to stay warm until the storm passed!) After trudging through six to eight hours of bog, rain, hail, wind, rain, stunning views, fresh air, rain, and more rain, we then all head to a nearby pub to enjoy great conversations over some Guinness or Murphy's.(Murphy's is a stout local to Cork, even tastier than Guinness in my opinion! If you ever come across it, give it a try!) It's almost like once per week heaven comes down to Earth for a day.

Well, now my journal entry looks like one big advertisement for the Mountaineering Club. But I can't stress enough how awesome it is and how much it has made me feel like I've been enjoying this country to its fullest!

Of course, I'm making sure to enjoy the other countries in Europe to the fullest, too. I have done so in particular by undertaking one of my greatest achievements to date: a roadtrip across Europe. Over the Christmas break, Jose (one of the other Mitchell Scholars) and I joined one of his friends, Berni (who is from Vienna), on a journey from Dublin to Vienna, a distance spanning more than 2100 km, and a trip covering a total of ten countries! We took a ferry from Dublin to Wales, then drove through Wales to England. We explored London for a day, then left from London to Dover (as in, the Cliffs of Dover!) where we boarded another ferry to Dunkirk, France. Then we drove through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany (where we got to experience the glory that is the autobahn), and finally Austria (Salzburg, precisely). Six countries in one day! Wow! Then we explored Salzburg for a day before driving to Berni's home in Vienna, where his mother made us homemade Kaiserschmarrn, and then Wiener Schnitzel the next night. Berni drove us to Bratislava, Slovakia the following day where Jose and I said goodbye to him and caught a flight to Rome, where we had the delight of seeing the Pope come out on the balcony to say Merry Christmas! Then the following day, I was off to the Netherlands. My girlfriend flew over, too, and we got to celebrate the New Year in Amsterdam!

All I can say is: Phew! What a trip... A roadtrip is DEFINITELY the best way (at least that I've come across so far) to see Europe. We got to see so many different countries and cultures and had so much freedom in our travels. Three straight weeks of living out of one carry-on-sized bag with great company and plenty of sites seen and fun had... It was an irreplaceable, simply fantastic experience.

Aside from these travels, two memorable experiences stick out in my mind that were direct byproducts of being a Mitchell Scholar. The first (which I forgot to mention in my previous entry) was the ability to attend the U.S. Election Party, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Ireland, at the Guinness Storehouse. All of the Mitchell Scholars received private invitations, and we got to witness the Presidential Election while drinking free Guinness all night. It was a great way to make up for not being able to be home in America for such an important historical event. Then, later in November, all the Scholars got together at the home of one of the Scholarship donors for a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. There we got to have a wonderful meal with several Irish men and women, and the conversation flowed as sweetly as the red wine on the table and as richly as the gravy on the delicious Thanksgiving turkey. (I have learned that such is the case with nearly any conversation with someone from Ireland.) Like the Election Party, it was a great way to make up for not being home for Thanksgiving.

Now a new semester is upon me, and it's back to school and homework. I've got plenty of adventures left ahead of me, though: Venice with my girlfriend for Valentine's day, ten more hikes with the Mountaineering Club, trips planned to Switzerland, Sweden, and Portugal, and plenty more Murphy's to be had in Cork's many wonderful pubs. Hopefully my next "Reflection" journal entry will be even more exciting than this one! Slainte!

Adam Tart - Mitchell Scholarship 2008-2009 - November 17, 2008

When I arrived in Cork, Ireland, the first thought that came to mind as I stepped off the airplane onto the tarmac was, "Is this really what Cork looks like? Or is this some big landscaping project that was performed to make the airport look nicer?" Right by the airport were beautiful, green, rolling hills and an expansive sky with clouds dramatically thrown across it. After going through customs and hopping into a taxi, I realized along my way to my new apartment that it wasn't just some landscaping project; there was beautiful countryside everywhere. I couldn't believe it. (And I've since realized that this countryside isn't even the most breathtaking in Ireland!)

Before coming to Ireland I had heard that it would be beautiful. The country has far surpassed my expectations. (I still can't decide if the grass here really is greener than in Georgia, where I'm from, or if I've just convinced myself that it is.)

The countryside is not the only beautiful aspect of Cork: University College Cork's (UCC's) campus is outstanding! And not just for its aesthetic qualities: I REALLY enjoy my classes. My professors are fantastic (and most of them are Irish, which makes me feel especially like a part of the Irish culture), and the course material is interesting and challenging. As fascinating as my Statistics program at Georgia Tech was, it's nice to finally be taking classes again in a subject I'm especially passionate about (computer science). Surprisingly, my program (M.Sc. Mobile Networking & Computing) has only seven people in it, and only one guy is Irish. It looks like some international friends and I are going to become a tight-knit group!

The realization that I am satisfied and content with my being matched with UCC in Cork is profoundly important to me in such a positive way. See, the Mitchell Scholarship allows twelve U.S. students to study in Ireland each year, but we don’t have complete control over which university we get to attend. Instead, we submit a “top five” list with our scholarship application, and the following factors determine which Scholar attends which university: which programs are offered at each university to provide a good match for each scholar, how many scholars each university is willing to accept, and the scholar’s interview performance. I had some reservations about being matched to UCC and Cork since it was such a small city “in the middle of nowhere” (by American standards) with a university I hadn’t heard of prior to applying to the Scholarship. I have come to realize, however, that I actually got the best deal I could have hoped for. The university provides a wonderful academic and social environment (and is very highly ranked internationally to boot), and the city itself is a dream come true. Cork is the perfect compromise between Irish countryside and city-life: the hills and pastures are a stone’s throw away (unlike the industrial Dublin), while the city center provides an incredible downtown experience with seemingly unlimited choices of shops, restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and cafes. I have the best of all worlds in Cork. Serendipity at its finest.

I've tried to get involved in a few things on campus to meet new people and get the most out of my experience here, but for the past couple months or so it seems as though fate has been working against me. I joined the Ultimate Frisbee team, and at the end of the very first training session, I dislocated my shoulder. If you've never done this before, I can't recommend trying it. I had to be rushed to the hospital, and I was placed in a sling for four weeks. This prevented me from doing the activities on campus I was most interested in (ultimate frisbee, mountaineering (a hiking club), and running). But of course, I did not let this prevent me from making the most of my time here! Sling or no sling, I've been sure to get in plenty of traveling, including trips to Prague, Paris, Barcelona, London, and all over Ireland. Traveling around Ireland is especially great since I get to visit the other Mitchell scholars and see what their experiences are like. I'm so glad we all get along so well. I feel very fortunate to have been picked for the Mitchell Scholarship when I see what amazing people they are.

I felt like I really got to know the Scholars well, and realized how close we could potentially come, on our fall retreat. One of the greatest advantages of the Mitchell Scholarship is the plethora of opportunities that it provides beyond just the education, travel, and stipend. Our fall retreat is one fantastic example. Soon after the twelve of us arrived on the island, we each hopped on trains to Limerick and proceeded to travel around the west coast, see some common and not-so-common sights, meet some locals, and get introduced to the Irish way of life. This included a trip to the staggeringly impressive Cliffs of Moher, an Irish cooking class at a local lodge, and a stay at the five-star Doonbeg Golf Resort where we got to meet several of the benefactors and donors of the Scholarship after the US-Ireland Alliance’s annual golf tournament there. I couldn’t believe the royal treatment we received! I feel like there was no better way to begin to fall in love with this country.

Similar opportunities cropped up as time went by, such as the chance to see famous Irish actress Fiona Shaw’s portrayal of Samuel Becket’s “Happy Days” play at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, including the chance to meet her after the show. I would never have had this opportunity had I not been on the Mitchell Scholarship here!

I can't believe I've already been here in Ireland for two months. The time has just been flying by, and I've been having so much fun. Getting to be a part of Irish life, seeing all of the beauty, history, and activity this country has to offer, getting to meet so many amazing people, and getting to travel so many places has really been a dream come true. And, now that my shoulder has finally healed, I can't wait to get started on all the other things I've been looking forward to so much. I'm having a blast, and it looks like the rest of my year here is going to be even better. I can't wait!

Adam Tart - Mitchell Scholarship 2008-2009

It has been two years since I was awarded the Mitchell Scholarship, one year since I thus began my adventure in Ireland, and about six months since I once again stepped foot on American soil. Although much time has passed, I made sure to document my travels and experiences throughout my time there in my journal, and I am happy to share these journal entries with all of you out there who might be interested in applying to the Mitchell Scholarship. (I would highly recommend doing so!) My year abroad in Ireland was the best time of my life, and I hope that the following journal entries help convey that and convince you that the same could be true for you.

And as soon as I have a little more time, I will go through these posts and add some of my favorite photos to them! :-)

Note: Because each of these entries was written a while ago, ignore the actual timestamps of them on this blog and instead note that their dates of writing is mentioned in their titles.

Fulbright: Research and Language Study

Sabaah El-Khier and Bonjour from Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia on a gorgeous May afternoon. While the beautiful warm weather is enticing me to make a trip to the beach today, I thought before I went, I would write a post for the Georgia Tech Fellowship Blog to discuss a bit the Fulbright program as well as my research experience. My name is Thomas Earnest (INTA ’07), and I am currently in Tunisia studying the country’s economic development narrative. For my blog post, I wanted to focus on two aspects of my Fulbright experiences that might be helpful to prospective applicants: (1) language acquisition while on your Fulbright; (2) completing research overseas, especially what to do with all your work at the end of your grant.

Living in Tunisia, I have the valuable (and sometimes challenging) experience of living in a bilingual country where French and Arabic are used almost interchangeably--sometimes a sentence will be composed, for example, of an Arabic subject, a French verb, and an Arabic adjective or adverb. This process, coupled with the fact that Tunisia is one of the few remaining countries in the world where the common populace has barely any knowledge of the English language, has made my Fulbright experience almost as much about enhancing language skills as it has been about actual field research. So if you are excited about or wanting to practice or learn a foreign language, then the Fulbright experience is definitely one to consider.

And the great part is, depending on where you choose to do your research, the Fulbright grant will pay up to six months of in-country language study before you begin your research through the Critical Language Enhancement Award (CLEA), a supplemental grant available through Fulbright for students pursuing research in areas of the world where “critical-need” languages are spoken. Examples include Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Korean, Hindi, and Bengali, just to name a few. Iif you are interested in a part of the world where few Americans speak the language, you’re probably eligible for the CLEA award. And I highly, highly recommend your applying for this supplemental grant for the obvious reason that you are getting up to six months of (free) language training, a personal advantage but also extremely helpful for conducting your research in your host country’s native language. However, there is a more subtle reason that has a long-term benefit on your research. With the typical Fulbright grant period lasting nine or ten months, by the time you truly get settled and comfortable in your new surroundings and academic environment, it's almost time to leave. However, with the CLEA program you get to spend your first months getting settled both personally and within your academic research environment while you complete language study; and when it is time for the research portion of your grant to kick in, you are completely settled and ready to hit the ground running with your work. You maximize your research time this way, and undoubtedly your final research product will reap the rewards from these extra months in the country.

The second topic I wanted to discuss is actually completing research during your Fulbright. If you are considering applying for a Fulbright, you probably suspect researching abroad is an experience unlike anything you may have had at home (or at least, it has been for me here in Tunisia researching in the Arab world), but know that it is an extremely rewarding, intellectually stimulating experience as well as a time of personal, professional, and academic growth. In your host country, you learn to operate in new professional, cultural, and societal norms and sometimes are forced to revisit your research proposal if you find it needs to be reworked to be more flexible. Overall though, it’s a pretty awesome experience when you realize that the success or failure of your research experience rests completely on your shoulders. You created this proposal, secured funding, and now that you are in country, it is your sole responsibility to see the work through to its end.

To give you a brief look into my research experience, I arrived in Tunis is September 2008 with plans to create a documentary film on the Tunisian development narrative, after completing my CLEA grant. I had some experience in documentary films in college and wanted to get on the streets and really examine the current state of Tunisia’s development. It is a country that on the surface looks to be head and shoulders above many of its neighbors; however, I had become skeptical of these lauded successes and wanted to explore them in depth through film. Unfortunately though, when I arrived in Tunis, I realized my project may have been a bit too ambitious because I met resistance and caution to my idea of filming. People here are wary and hesitant to put their faces and voices before a camera--especially if discussing the government or its policies. Naturally, this setback was a disappointment; but committed to the essence of my research, I returned to my proposal and began to rework and refine my ideas. It was an evolving process that spanned the initial weeks and even first couple months of my grant period. In the end, though I believe my research is stronger, more focused, and has a more realistic and attainable end-point.

So here I am now, eight-months after I arrived in Tunisia, with the end of my Fulbright experience quickly approaching (my grant ends in August, but I am considering extending my stay in country following my Fulbright). The question on my mind now (and one you may be considering for yourselves as a current applicant) is what do I do now that I have this wealth of research at the conclusion of my Fulbright grant? It is an important question because you have invested an entire year of your life into a research experience, and you want to share your findings with others. Do you write an article for publication? Submit an abstract to a conference to present your findings? Write an opinion piece for a newspaper? Submit your findings to a journal as research notes? The right answer or answers may be unique to your project, but it an important thing to consider before and during your research.

For me, I’m still working through ideas to decide which avenue is best for my research and am looking into working on an article and/or an op-ed for submission, but I have already taken a couple of opportunities to share my work that may be of interest to you. In mid-April, I attended a conference at the Université de Gafsa in Southern Tunisia to present some of my initial findings. This experience was my first time to present research in an official academic setting, and I think a similar experience would be perfect for any Fulbright researcher. I also recently traveled to Amman, Jordan for the annual regional Fulbright Enrichment seminar, which was a chance for Fulbright researchers in the Middle East and North Africa to come together, share their research, exchange best practices, and receive training on research methods. I am also planning a presentation for late July when I will present my final research findings at the Centre d’Études Maghrébines à Tunis to an audience of foreign and domestic members of the academic community in Tunis to share my research as well as receive feedback before I begin preparing my work for its final format (and hopeful) publication.

As I now realize that my entry has spanned over two pages in a word document and not wanting to risk loosing your attention, I will end here for now. But my hope is that this article will be a helpful resource for any prospective applicants or anyone curious about what Tech grads are doing overseas. Please feel free to contact me at thomasdearnest (at) mac (dot) com if you have any questions. Go Jackets!

Marshall Experience + Interview

Hey!

My name is Inn Inn Chen and I was a Marshall in 2008. I first want to say to anyone reading this that if I was able to a fellowship, YOU CAN TOO. The experience of applying/interviewing for these fellowships was absolutely amazing (and that included a Rhodes interview in which I was slaughtered) and I would encourage anyone seriously considering applying to do so.

I'll keep this brief, but feel free to contact me with any questions you have. This post is in two parts, one about the "official" marshall experiences, and the second is about the two tips that I think are most important for the interviews.

Marshall Experiences:
-Marshall Orientation:
-Official visits to the State Dept. w/ a debriefing session with the Deputy Secretary of State (I'm sorry but there were so many debriefing sessions with politicians, I don't remember any others. . .)
-Official visit and lunch in the Senate Building
-Cocktail event in the Senate Building with various scientific lobby groups
-Q&A with some distinguished Marshall alums
-Tour of parliament
-Official visit to 10 Downing St. and sessions with the Prime Minister's staff
-GOOGLE PARTY!! (This is the highlight of the year--Google throws an over-the-top party at an amazing venue for all the Rhodes and Marshalls each year. They do some informal recruiting presentations, etc. but it's worth sitting through for the amazing (free!) dinner, reception, party, live entertainment, and alcohol. . . )
-Free invitation to the official London Inaugural Ball for President Obama--Another great party, better still because the tickets were all at least $100, but one of the Marshall commissioners is on the board of Democrats Abroad
-Annual Marshall Trip
-All the Marshalls have an annual trip to either Ireland, Wales, or Scotland. It's free.
-It's a packed trip with official visits with many of the heads of state
-This year, it was Belfast and Dublin, so we met with the leaders of N. Ireland, including Martin McGuiness and the Nobel lauruete John Hume. It was really incredible to hear their views about the state of the world today.
-For those Marshalls in Oxford, the marshalls and rhodes meet every week at a specific pub in Oxford. . . it's great for those politically-inclined scholars for networking. . .I must admit, I've only made it to two of the weeks since I've been in Oxford

My Interview Tips:
There are many tips, but these are two (almost conflicting) tips that I wish EVERY applicant considers.
-Wikipedia everything in your application--your interview panel will not be experts in your field but they will ask very specific questions about your area. While the questions will be very specific, the extent of their understanding of the answer will be "mostly" based on what wikipedia says, and not from the latest paper from your field's journals or esoteric knowledge. The panel is very diverse, and they do have to research the areas of all interviewees, so wikipedia is a common source. That said, you probably will have at least one expert in your area--so you are expected to answer in sufficient depth when they ask follow-up questions.
-This tip is in hindsight: Prepare for the interview, but understand that preparing for the interview actually doesn't make a huge difference in the end. I say this because when I look back, EVERYTHING I talked about in the interview was based on thoughts/ideas/knowledge that I had known/carried with me for some time. Cramming doesn't do anything for this type of interview. The interviewers are really looking for WHO YOU ARE, and who you are DID NOT suddenly appear just when you started applying for this fellowship. I wish I had known that before the interview, because honestly, I read a lot of things specifically to "prepare" for the interview. . . and they didn't help AT ALL.
-Oh one last tip: your favorite classical music composer is Handel. It just is. Several Marshalls were asked that question and they were all challenged why it wasn't Handel. He is a huge part of the heritage at Oxford. . . so just WIKIPEDIA him!

I hope some of this is inspirational for you guys! PLEASE feel free to contact me--Dr. Adams has my email.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

Inn Inn

What is a PhD?

[Caption: Managing time by preparing plates for experiments after a dinner party]

I am now at the beginning of my second year of my PhD and I am beginning to get a deeper understanding of the purpose of a PhD. I took up a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to research in microbiology at the Biochemistry Department at the University of Cambridge. When I first arrived, I had grand visions, to say the least, of using this opportunity to change the world, to make an impact in social and economic development. You're probably thinking that I have different interests from microbiology, but I have a vision where science and service for the advancement of civilization go hand in hand.

But back to the question of this post, 'What is a PhD?' I realized that I'm still quite young and require further training and preparation to be able to provide a meaningful contribution toward the social and economic development of the world. And this led me to realize that in order to manage a huge task like that, the PhD is equipping me with skills needed to do that by giving me training in project management. Therefore, a PhD is essentially training in project management. Up until now, through high school and undergraduate university, I've been taking classes to gain a foundation of knowledge and skills to be able to apply what I've learned toward a problem in order to come up with a meaningful solution. Along the way there were a few small projects, both on an individual and group level, to gain practice in applying those skills to solving projects.

But a PhD is essentially the first opportunity where I was a given a large project with a relatively long term time scale of 3-4 years to which I was given full responsibility to manage and carry it out, and for which I would be held fully accountable for my work and results by professionals in the field in the viva examination at the end. During this time I will learn how to be independent, adapt to different personalities along the way such as my supervisor and lab colleagues, and develop a system to manage an accumulating and large amount of information that I will have to synthesize into a coherent report, the thesis. This thought process is comforting especially if someone feels their project is uninteresting, for they can find motivation to carry on their project by seeing a greater goal beyond it.

At the end of the PhD, I will most likely get a job where I will be given another project to tackle another problem and come up with a solution. If you haven't already guessed it by now, you can see that a PhD looks like training to be a consultant. Of course this is based on what I understand at the moment in the second year of my PhD which is variable to change. But I suspect it is for this reason that top management consulting companies recruit PhD students, because consultants manage a variety of projects and the PhD is the first real training a student receives in project management. Perhaps some will say that a masters degree fulfills the same criteria. Well, perhaps that is true but I came into the PhD directly from an undergraduate degree. I did have two years of undergraduate research experience but the PhD is a significantly expanded project management experience.

And having done a year of research in Kuwait in 2007 on a Fulbright Scholarship where I researched the values of Kuwaiti youth to women's rights, that experience appears quite similar to my PhD in microbiology, a completely different field, when looked at the in the light that both were essentially training in project management where I was learning a key set of skills:

• Developing a focused research question.
• Managing accumulating and large amounts of information.
• Synthesizing information and facts into meaningful insights.
• Learning to adapt to and collaborate with different personalities.
  

I will end here now for my first post. Perhaps in a later post I will discuss how I plant to integrate my various interests in the future and how they overlap.

Fulbright Fellow Application Tips - Daniel Shorr - Japan

Greetings,

My name is Daniel Shorr and I'm a GT graduate of '08, current Fulbright Fellow researching international warning symbol comprehension at Kyoto University as a psychological researcher.

For this post, I'd first like to share a little personal history to put things in context and then focus on providing tips about the application process, concluding with a very brief reflection on my Fulbright grant year thus far.

Personal history:

• Since summer before Sophomore year, I have been affiliated with GT psychology labs, involved in the research process and loving it. (I did my senior thesis with the HFA Lab - wonderful, supportive research environment [yes, for undergrads too!])
• I studied Japanese at Tech for three years (quality program), freshman - junior (I would have continue senior year but requisite courses for my graduation created a scheduling conflict).
• Summer before junior year I attended GPC's 20 day study abroad in Japan program (note: USG students such as Techies are eligible to participate). I don't know how the current program is conducted, but in the incarnation that I experienced it it was a great introduction to Japan - basically a guided tour to many, many places [from Tokyo to Hiroshima], granting much freedom to explore on your own, and allowed nearly all of the bookwork to be completed upon return to the states (grade was mainly based on a research paper).
• Summer before Senior year I attended Tech's 6 week LBAT Japan and had a great, but very different experience - much, much, much more emphasis on studying. If you go, I highly recommend remaining in Japan after the program finishes if you want to have a chance to relax, hang out with the cool folks you met when slaving over your coursework, and do some more sightseeing.
• After returning to the states, I was considering my post-graduation options. I knew I wanted to return to Japan somehow; I wanted to become more accustomed to Japanese life, I wanted to become fluent, and I knew that the only way to do that would be to live here. I also knew that I loved research, and had interest in conducting cross-cultural studies.
• I spoke with Dr. Howard Rollins who suggested I consider the Fulbright program. He told me I'd be able to perfectly merge my interests of psychology research, cross-cultural research, and living in Japan (and I have).
  

Application Process:

• I was then directed to Ms. Amy Henry who very supportively guided me through the application process.
• Before meeting with her, I first did extensive research about the Fulbright Fellow program online. There was a mountain of information and it was somewhat overwhelming, but after sorting through it for hours it started to make sense.
• If memory serves, I had less than 2 months from the time I became aware of the Fulbright program to the time my application was due. That was intimidating. As soon as I decided that I was going to apply, I requested letters of recommendation (rec).
• Who provided my 3 letters of rec? 1) one of my HFA lab directors, 2) a Tokyo Tech professor who was friends with my lab directors and whom I knew from making a presentation to his lab, and 3) one of my GT Japanese professors whom I knew well.
• Because of the imminent deadline, I prioritized the application and "fought to keep my drafts on other people's desks." By that I mean to say that since I could only control the rate at which I completed work, and not the rate at which others reviewed my work, I prioritized completing my work as quickly as possible so that it could be back on their desks as quickly as possible. While they were working on proofreading I could refocus on my classwork and other obligations.
• In addition to the written application, there was a GaTech conducted interview. Do not fear this at all. It is more akin to a final, group proofreading and advice session. Literally, a few Tech professors discussed with me my proposed research and helped me better tailor it to the Fulbright application reviewers.
  

Takeaway Tips:

1. It is never too early to start considering your future. Make choices that lead toward your goals.
2. Use the internet to research things first before you meet with people - it saves both of you effort in the long run. When you meet you can focus on any gaps in the online/published info; no one needs waste their time discussing what is already printed and understood.
3. Don't be dissuaded by tight deadlines.
4. Ask people to proofread - get a variety: friends, professors, TA's - people whose ability you respect and with whom you have a candid rapport.
5. Be 100% sure that you are applying before you request letters of rec.
6. As soon as you are 100% sure, request your letters of rec (i.e., respect others' time).
7. Create a timeline of when you should have each step of the process completed. It will keep you on track.
8. Do not fear the Fulbright interview.
   

Me with some of my labmates in Amanohashidate

Reflections on my Fulbright Grant experience:

I am thrilled to be alive. Kyoto U. has fostered wonderful experiences for me in many ways.

• Research-wise: via my helpful research advisor (Dr. Kusumi), supportive labmates, and thought-provoking weekly seminars and department colloquiums.
• Japanese language-wise: via the numerous Japanese language classes taught by engaging professors, and through my simply living here.
• Socially: via my friendships with labmates and connections outside of the university - some through Fulbright events, some through my own exploration of Kyoto, and some through friends I had from previous visits.
  

If you'd like to know more, you can contact me at dshorr [at] gatech [dot] edu. And feel free to check out my photosite and personal blog.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zed868/collections/
Blog: http://zed868.livejournal.com/

Best of luck to you in achieving your dreams,
Daniel