Dear Debbie,
The easy answer to why I decided to apply for a Fulbright is that it seemed like a logical next step. Honestly, the answer is far more complex than that. There are several reasons why it seemed like a good idea, the first being why wouldn’t I want to spend a year (or two) traveling, teaching and building my resume and international experience at the same time? Here I need to echo what both Kaci and Meredith have said: Doc Kalmar could be cited as the reason that I took an interest in International Relations/German in the first place. Thanks to Doc, my family had an “accidental” exchange student my sophomore year of high school – “accidental” because her original host family backed out and my family stepped in, though I was not a German student at the time. The experience was such a positive one that I joined Doc and his students on their trip to Lindau at the end of the school year. Upon my return to the states I took an interest in International Relations, and picked up German as a second language. These became my majors at Bowdoin College, where both the German and Government departments steered me in the direction of a Fulbright. Bowdoin’s German department is notorious for doing so: 60-some percent of Bowdoin’s Fulbrights come from the German Department.
The Austrian Fulbright is a little different than what Kaci and Meredith have – technically it’s an “English Teaching Assistantship administered by the Fulbright Commission and the Austrian-American Educational Commission.” My hunch is that they have it as such so that people can apply to both Germany and Austria (lest they lose applicants to one country or the other). I, too, applied for both. Austria’s application is done all in English and includes the normal forms (health, GPA, etc.) and “Why do you want an Austrian Fulbright” essays that you would expect. Additionally, they ask you to rank your location preferences both in terms of State and size of town/city where you would like to teach. All of this is due in January; in March they tell you if you’ve made it past the first round and in April they give you the final decision and placement. I was lucky enough to get my first choice – Salzburg.
Though we are both teaching Fulbrights, my situation is very different than Meredith’s. I teach in three different schools around Salzburg: two all boys’ private Catholic schools and one public technical high school. My students range in age from 13-20. In addition to the normal challenges of being a teacher – coming up with lesson plans, keeping my students engaged, etc. – I have the added challenge of having 37 different classes that I teach once every three weeks. The job requires plenty of creativity and energy! I teach a little bit of everything; the basic idea is that the students become conversational in English and well-versed in American culture. I have taught lessons on everything from gun control to racism, from Facebook to the Superbowl. The students are mostly interested in what life is like as an American teenager. I, in turn, have learned what life is like as an Austrian. I have learned to ski, learned how to find groceries and medicine, and have learned to understand (and even speak) the thick Salzburger dialect.
Like Kaci, I have not yet solidified any future plans. I have applied for a second year here in Salzburg so that I can continue to improve my German, but have yet to receive the Commission’s decision. Ultimately I plan to use my German and my Fulbright experience in some Diplomatic capacity.
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