Fulbright Experience
"The Fulbright experience has been good, especially thinking of it compared to the last time I was in Belgium. The group here is pretty close because of how small the country is, so there’s a real feeling of comradery. We had our mid-year meeting several weeks, where a few of us had a chance to present. It is clear that my fellow Fulbrighters are top professionals, that are intelligent, resilient, considerate, open-minded, and want to make an impact in the world. Being in Belgium specifically provides some very interesting opportunities. There are 3 U.S. embassies here, one to the Kingdom of Belgium (bilateral), one to NATO, and one to the EU. I recently had a chance to spend time with the US Ambassador to the EU’s wife (and the ambassador for a short time), and appreciated that opportunity because I was able to better understand how there are a lot of hardworking people making a world a better place to live in."
"My Fulbright is focused on research, teaching, and community service. My research has been humbling as I get to work as an equal with someone I respect and better empathize with the research setbacks my own graduate students run into. I’m getting a chance to teaching in a different style, as well as having the chance to be a student again taking a statistics course. It’s been years since I’ve been anxious about the final examination, but I feel like the experience will make me a better teacher. Finally, I’m finally getting a chance to get help with mental health mentoring here, as I was diagnosed with depression when I was a student in Belgium 10 years ago. I’m working with the MindMates program at KU Leuven to help mentor students that are going through similar experiences to what I had."
