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SHORT ANSWER QUESTION 2: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program application includes three short answer questions that you should thoughtfully address. Today's advising corner focuses on the second about community engagement.
2,000 CHARACTERS - MAXIMUM
This short answer question must be no more than 2,000 characters in length, including spaces.
The answer will be entered directly into a box in the Fulbright application portal. You should minimally use paragraph breaks in the portal to ensure that the full answer is not cut off when the .pdf version of your completed application is created.
FULBRIGHT GUIDANCE
Fulbright shares: How will you integrate within and engage with your host community? Consider the ways in which you engage with your U.S. community (through extracurricular activities, hobbies, or volunteering), and how you can engage with these ideas and practices while on grant. In what unique ways do you plan to share your culture and values in your host community and learn from others? How do your lived experiences prepare you to represent the United States as a cultural ambassador? Provide specific examples.
APPROACH
As with the first short answer question, a helpful approach before you begin writing involves Reflection and Outlining.
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Reflect: Spend some time thinking about specific activities that you have found enjoyable and meaningful in your life. Then do some research (e.g., searching the web or connecting with Fulbright grantees) about ways you might explore similar activities while living in the host country. Importantly, you should clearly identify how you believe these activities will allow you to learn more about the host country, while sharing about your life in the United States.
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Outline: Remember, as with question one, there simply is not space for a long autobiography. You will need to select a couple interests from your life, demonstrate you have researched specific actual ways to explore them in the host country, and thoughtfully illuminate how they will support meaningful engagement opportunities. Again, identify content you want to include and how you will move from one idea to the next.
WRITING TIPS
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Be Specific: Do not spend a lot of your written text describing, in an abstract or vague way, your general views on the importance of intercultural, global experiences. Instead brief program-connecting language will suffice. For example, "Complementing Fulbright's mission to support intercultural understanding, I plan to engage with my host community in the following ways . . . ." Then spend time on the specifics you have researched!
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Think Through Flexibility: Sometimes applicants, particularly for English Teaching Assistant grants, do not know exactly where they will be placed within the host country. In that case, it is still important to identify specific activities for engagement and sharing in the country, while signaling (of course, only if true to your own goals as the applicant!) placement flexibility. For example, "If placed in a city, I would . . . . Whereas, if I am placed in a rural area of the country, I imagine . . . ." Then explain.
VISIT US
Applicants should visit the Center for Research & Fellowships (310 Car Barn, 3520 Prospect Street NW) to review example statements from previous application cycles. Email fulbright@georgetown.edu to learn more about summer hours for the center's Car Barn office.
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