The Distinguished Fulbright Awards in Teaching Program is designed to recognize and encourage excellence in teaching in the U.S. and abroad. Twenty-four highly talented U.S. and international teachers are selected to receive a grant to study at a university, conduct research, teach classes and workshops, and develop a project pertaining to their field of educational inquiry during their semester overseas. In 2010-11, the participating countries are: Argentina, Finland, India, Israel, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. (Taken from the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching website)
This spring, I received a letter congratulating me on being selected for the Distinguished Fulbright Award in Teaching to take place in South Africa. As I read the letter repeatedly, I felt so extremely blessed, humbled, and fortunate. You see, going to Africa has been a life-long dream.
For the most part, my previous global experiences have been very limited and done only as a tourist, which have resulted in perceptions primarily influenced by media bias and literature with narrow perspectives. Likewise, my professional work has small in scope in that it has benefited only teachers and students within the nation’s borders, particularly those in Wisconsin.
Fulbright participation will unlock an African community that I will come to know through first-hand cultural immersion where new perspectives will be birthed, intellectual growth strengthened, cultural awareness nourished, and new contacts and friendship formed. While in Durban, South Africa, my foreign colleagues and their students will benefits from my shared professional gifts and talents while my work is simultaneously enriched by having it fully integrated in a free exchange of unique ideas and cultural norms.
My arrival date in Durban, South Africa is Saturday, January 15th (date postponed due to flight cancellations)
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