Why are you in Argentina?

Now that the excitement of Bariloche and COVID has passed, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things this week! Since I've been here for some time, I wanted to tell you all a bit about why I'm here in Argentina and how I got here in the first place.

I have a grant from Fulbright. I applied for the Fulbright way back in 2019. I have been trying to remember why I chose to apply to the Fulbright, but I can't really remember the specifics. I do, however, remember going to my university's National Scholarship Office towards the end of my junior year to talk about it. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I was inspired by one of my Spanish professors. For the life of me I can't remember his name, which makes me feel terrible because he wrote me the nicest recommendation. However, I had him for a Spanish language class. He was super wild, and I'm not quite sure I learned anything in that class (@Karina, maybe you learned something...lol), but I do remember him frequently mentioning having gone to Columbia through Fulbright. He was very nice to me and strongly encouraged me several times to look into the application process. At that time, I knew what Fulbright was having had it thrown in my face at American University in DC (the American buses were wrapped with random figures about the school like x number of students have received a Fulbright), but I had never really considered applying because I knew that it was super competitive and because I was a chemistry major. With a background in chemistry, the Fulbright didn't really seem to fit into my future plans very well (I say this as if I had plans beyond graduation at that point). Although I was a Spanish major, as well, I often considered that secondary to my chemistry studies.

Perhaps my Spanish prof was just that convincing or perhaps the fear of my senior year just got to me or perhaps traveling to Spain the fall of my junior year showed me how exciting it can be to explore new countries, but I made the decision to check things out. Funny enough, I actually almost didn't go back to the National Scholarship Office (NSO) and almost didn't apply because during my first meeting I was told that chemistry education as a field doesn't exist. This wasn't one of those moments where I was being told "oh no you can't do x, y, or z" but was more so equal parts amusing and annoying because I was actively engaging in chemistry education research on a daily basis. I'm not quite sure what inspired me to head back to the NSO...Honestly, it was probably because I'm stubborn and wanted to prove that I was right, so I headed back to discuss my options with a new person who quickly was added to my list (if I were to have a list) of favorite people. Meredith, who I used to call Dr. Sisson, added me to the list of people applying for Fulbright, and the adventure began.

Fulbright applications are due in mid-October; however, it is absolutely imperative that you start early. I've heard that you should start as early as a year ahead of time, which I think is a little overkill but starting ~6 months before is probably a good idea. To apply for a Fulbright, there are quite a few things you have to consider. The first is probably the kind of grant that you want. There are several different special awards you can apply for, but the two most common are Study/Research Awards and English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Awards. The Study/Research Award is what I initially thought of when I heard the name Fulbright. For this award, you propose a project to work on while in your country of choice. There are special field-specific options within this, but that's the main idea. For the ETA award, you are placed in a school in your country to supplement English language instruction. This is what I applied for and received.

Many of you may be reading this and thinking, "Wow! Leslie, aren't you a graduate student? Why didn't you choose to apply for the research award?" I actually have an answer to this question. I considered it. I thought doing research abroad would be super cool. However, the application process would've been considerably harder. The first ginormous barrier would've been finding an advisor to work with in my country of choice. To apply for this award, you need to have someone from a university or wherever you plan to work indicating that they will be your research advisor during the Fulbright. I didn't know anyone anywhere who studied chemistry education research in a Spanish-speaking country at the time, so there's that. The second ginormous barrier would've been actually proposing a research project. Proposing a research project as a second year graduate student is hard. Proposing a research project when you've done barely a semester's worth of research is near impossible. At that point in my academic career, I truly did not have the tools necessary to come up with a research project let alone carry out said research project.

The second thing you want to think about when applying is where you want to go and why. This is a lot easier said than done because there are several different things you need to keep in mind when choosing the country that is the best fit for you. You have to consider the placement type. In some countries, you are placed in university, teacher-training, or post-secondary institutions, meaning you'll be in classrooms with university level students and/or adults. In other countries, you may be placed in primary or secondary schools, so you have to consider what you are comfortable with and/or if any of that even matters to you. You also have to consider where you may be placed. You can be placed in the capital city, regional cities, or rural areas. Again, you have to consider what you're most comfortable with. If you know rural areas are a possibility but would hate living in a rural area, maybe that's not the country for you. Then, teaching commitment per week may also be of relative importance for you. Some countries require up to 40 hours a week while others, like Argentina, only require 20, and others require even less. Then (I told you it's a lot easier said than done), you need to consider the language proficiency requirement. What kind of language experience do you need to be considered for the award?

The Fulbright website lays it out pretty intuitively for ya:

In addition to all of these items, some countries are preferences for whether or not you have teaching experience, which is also something to consider.

Once you figure out what your priorities are for placement, teaching commitment, etc., to be honest, I would also consider how many grants are given and how many apply each year. On Fulbright's website there is a page that lists the statistics of each country for both Study/Research Awards and ETA Awards. This page shows you the number of people who applied for a specific award in a specific country for the last 2 or 3 application cycles. For example, for Spain for the 2021-2022 cycle, 839 people applied for an ETA Award, and 154 people received the award.

How did I choose Argentina then? I'll be honest, I don't think I considered half of what I just discussed. I knew I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country. I knew I didn't want to go to Spain because I had been there done that, which left me with Central and South America. From there, I kind of narrowed down my options based on what countries seemed most fun to travel to. I wish I could share some semblance of systematic reasoning, but I think I chose Argentina because my Spanish teacher in high school, Señora Belue, told us she had traveled to and had loved her experience in Argentina and because Argentina had a much lower number of people who applied, relatively speaking. There were 20 spots available when I applied, and 77 people applied for those spots. Argentina consistently had about a 25% acceptance rate the years prior to my application cycle, so I liked my odds. These odds were not very high at all considering the circumstances, but they were better than my chances if I were to apply to, say, Uruguay with a ~10% acceptance rate.

I wish my reasoning was better, but if I'm truly being honest, I think I just woke up one day and felt like Argentina was the place for me.

The Fulbright application process is pretty intense, which is why it's suggested that you start pretty early. For an ETA application, there are three main parts: the Program Information, the Statement of Grant Purpose, and the Personal Statement. You need three recommendation letters, and, depending on the country, you might need to have a Foreign Language Form filled out. The Program Information section includes three small/short essay responses, including a summary of the proposal and why you should be a grantee, a description of how you plan to engage with the host country, and a description of your career and/or educational plans when for when you return to the U.S. The Statement of Grant Purpose is a page long, single-spaced and answers the following questions with specific attention to the preferences of your chosen country:

The Personal Statement is a "one-page narrative that provides a picture of yourself as an individual." This is where you discuss your background, family, special interests, abilities, interests, etc. and how they have impacted you and your personal growth.

If you are struggling to see a huge difference between the Statement of Grant Purpose and the Personal Statement, welcome to the club. The overlap of ideas in these two statements made things super tricky.

To fill out my Foreign Language form, I had to have what was essentially an interview with a Spanish professor at my university. I made an appointment with her, and we basically just chatted for 15-20 minutes. Lucky for me, this was several months after coming back from Spain, so my Spanish was still pretty decent. I remember the professor being really impressed with my level of Spanish, which probably helped my odds a little.

While the application only consists of three main written components, which may not seem like a ton, these components required so much effort. I have become a strong strong strong believer that applying to fellowships and grants as a student is an incredible opportunity for professional development. The process sucks, but you come out on the other end so much better than when you started. As an incoming senior in college, answering questions like what I planned to do after coming back from my theoretical Fulbright was really difficult. However, these statements made me sit down and reflect on what I enjoy and what I want to do. This made applying to graduate schools a few months following the Fulbright pretty easy since I had already collected my thoughts for future plans.

Now as for the actual writing process, Meredith and VCU's NSO are amazing. Meredith sent out emails to all of us applying for the Fulbright every Friday reminding us what we needed to be doing and where we should be application-wise. This helped me feel like I was being held accountable because when you are applying for a big fellowship alone, things can feel pretty overwhelming. Meredith also read over my drafts...like almost every single draft. As you can probably imagine, I had a lot of drafts. This was also pretty scary, though, because it was really the first time I experienced proofreading for something that wasn't really academic. The statements I wrote felt a lot more personal, which made it even harder for me to share my drafts. However, Meredith is one of those people who somehow manages to speak in eloquent sentences. Granted, it's kind of her job to be able to help people write well-written statements, but it's still impressive and gave me some peace of mind.

Anyway, I went through lots and lots of drafts which Meredith edited and gave feedback on consistently (literally this woman does so much more than her job entails). Then, came the panels. At VCU, the NSO sets you up with a panel of professors and others who read a pseudo-final draft of your application and give you feedback. You do this twice with the same people to, first, talk about how to improve your application more broadly, and then to discuss those bigger changes and address smaller things you can tweak. I remember this being pretty scary. Of course, I had nothing to worry about because it was just people giving me feedback, but 4 or 5 professors/adults giving you feedback at a fancy looking table with coffee and a box of tissues in case you cry is pretty intimidating. They aren't there to make you cry, but it can be very overwhelming to have people tell you ways they think you can/should change things that you've been working on for what feels like a century.

I didn't cry in either go, but I do remember being frustrated and confused. What good were the panels then if people cry and feel frustrated and confused? Well, they give you perspectives and voice from people who haven't been staring at different versions of the same statements for months. They also are fantastic for your professional development (heehee). This was one of the first times I experienced feedback from different people who at times had dissenting opinions. This forced me to take ownership of my statements because I had to choose what feedback I agreed with and what feedback I would ignore.

In my writing, I struggled to discuss why Argentina. That was one of my weakest points. I also struggled to differentiate the Statement of Grant Purpose and the Personal Statement for obvious reasons. I also found it difficult to argue why I should be going in the first place, since living in a different country to be an English language assistant didn't exactly clearly coincide with a chemistry graduate degree.

I'm not going to attach or anything my actual statements here. I actually haven't read them for quite some time, so I don't even remember what I wrote about, but if anyone is interested in seeing them, I'd be happy to share.

After the writing process and after you press the scary submit button, there is a lot of waiting. What happens is they send your application to people in the US who read things over. I don't remember/am not quite sure who exactly reads them over, but whoever they are reads them over, decides if they like them, and then sends them off to your chosen country. Not all applications are sent over, though, so Fulbright applicants impatiently await this notification that lets them know whether or not they are a semi-finalist and their applications are being sent over. This email comes sometime in January or at least that's when it came for me. I remember I went to the library to sit between classes, opened my laptop, and saw the email. I was so scared to open the email alone, I ran to the chemistry building to open it with the post-doc of my research group just so I wouldn't be alone.

Once your application is sent to your chosen host country, someone there reads them and chooses the award grantees. When you hear back about the final decision is based on your country, but it's during the spring. I heard back in late March/early April maybe? I know I heard back before I had to accept an offer from grad schools because I remember emailing my current advisor Renée about receiving it before I had decided to go to Iowa. I had lowkey given her an ultimatum about my grad school decision and sneakily thought that if I had a Fulbright, she might be more willing to accept me into her group. Maybe it did help...

I got the email from Fulbright during the pandemic, though...early pandemic around Tiger King times. The email was absolutely terrible, too, because I thought the email itself would tell me the results. I had all this built up anxiety about opening the email, but when I did, it said that results were available on the Fulbright website. With even more anxiety, I followed the link in the email, thinking that it would bring me to my results, but it brought me to the log in page. With even more anxiety, I logged in, thinking that surely my results would be available on the home page of my Fulbright account, but the home page only repeated what the email said. With even more anxiety, I clicked on the link on the home page, which finally gave me the results.

I squealed quite a bit. Then, I called everyone. I don't think I did much else that day. I felt like I had just won at life - what more was there to do than wait to go to Argentina?

Since it was early in the pandemic, there was hope that I would maybe be able to go in 2021 as scheduled, but our optimism slowly decreased over time.

There wasn't much contact with the Argentina Fulbright Commission until the fall of 2020. They basically didn't know what was going to happen, but sent us a form to fill out with our placement preferences. I wish I could see what I put, but I think I said something about wanting to be on the coast if possible and wanting to be near Patagonia. This is what Sol saw when she chose a grantee to come here! She saw this, liked what I said, and chose me! It's super wild to me that I wrote something random on a form in 2020 that led me to be here in this amazing place a year and a half later. Go 2020 Leslie for whatever she wrote!

And that's how I ended up here! I'm happy to answer other questions about Fulbright or the application process or what happens after you get accepted!

I'll leave you with some pictures, since this post was pretty text heavy...

Here's some food I ate when I had COVID. Delivery is amazing.

Some pancakes I butchered:

A wonderful sunset

Olive oil from the olive picking at Sol's farm that I missed when I was sick. They gave me some even though I wasn't there!! So nice.

I bought some succulents, naturally.

I made cookies for Yani and I!

Sol made me vegan food :)

And I met her [daughter's] new cat, Milo! He's so fluffy and friendly! I gave him so many pets.

Yay vegan food!

Then, she and Claudio took me to see some whales! There weren't a ton out yet, but I saw a few and their tails!