Forty seven Fulbrighters from four continents gather in the fifth continent (did you say America?) and share with us their experience and thoughts on the Pre-Academics program in the University of Arizona in Tucson for the Fulbright scholars. Here are the testimonies of four of them, one from each continent!

“A cactus, the Grand Canyon, Hoover’s dam, and maybe a coyote and a road runner: that was the image of Arizona I had conceived in my mind until… July 2006 when I attended the Fulbright Pre-Academics program hosted by CESL in the U of A”, says Slim Menzli, from Tunisia. Slim will be studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Irina Avkhimovich from Russia agrees “When I knew that I would be spending three weeks in Arizona, the first thought that came to my mind at once was that there was the Grand Canyon in this state. But I would never have thought I would see it so soon.” Irina who will get a master’s degree in British Literature at the University of Missouri was among a group of Fulbrighters who spent three days exploring what is undoubtedly Arizona’s most prominent icon.

The Fulbright scholarship is the most prestigious scholarship awarded by the US government to promote mutual understanding between people through better knowledge and experience exchange.

Back in 1945, the huge mushroom cloud left by the two Atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the death of thousands of innocent people and the devastation of the two largest cities of Japan was a true human calamity but at the same time turned out to be the beginning of the peace making process in the world. One senator in the United States initiated this process - Mr. J. W. Fulbright – wrote that the disaster that followed the bombing was the immediate driving force to set up an exchange program. In the aftermath of this tragedy, he realized the importance to get to know people from different countries, foster mutual understanding and develop ties among people because nobody would drop A-bombs onto the country where his or her friends are living.

“For Japanese people, August is one of the special months in the year. In 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan for the first time in the history of Mankind. We traditionally spend this month praying for eternal peace in the world.” says Yuka Minagawa, who will be heading to Harvard for a degree in Political Science. “To tell the truth, even after having been selected as a principle candidate, I did not fully understand the true meaning of this scholarship. For me this was just a very good ticket that would take me to a graduate school in the US but looking back now at those three weeks in Tucson, I believe that it was the Pre-Academics orientation in University of Arizona that made me finally realize what Senator Fulbright really wanted to establish through this exchange program”.

The aim of the Pre-Ac program is to make the prospective Fulbright scholars more familiar with the US education system. For three weeks from mid July to early August, Fulbright scholars were offered a cornucopia of diverse activities.

Our Fulbrighters especially recall the soccer game, the visits to the Sonora Desert museum and the Heard museum in Phoenix, the barbecue, the food bank and the dinner out. “How can I ever forget all the laughs we had in the shared dorm kitchen, spending whole hours discussing how we would change the world and make it a better place for everyone (that is when we weren’t in the lab working on a writing assignment, a group project or dancing Salsa in a local club)”, reminisces Slim.

The students of the U of A who happened to be on camps during this summer must have been amazed at the diversity of the group who was heading to the CESL, Harvill and the ECE buildings every morning.

“From the first day it was evident that the whole world was represented in the classrooms” says Maria Teresa Azahar, from El Salvador. “People from different cultures, religions and races yet so similar.” Teresa, who will be a Master’s student in Organizational Development at Antioch University in New Hampshire, says she is happy she learned a lot from this experience. “It was like traveling around the world without actually taking the plane. I could finally learn the real meaning of the word “world”. It was a chance to meet all those big-hearted and intelligent human beings who felt so united that they identified themselves in each others”.

“After spending three weeks with my fellow Fulbrighters from so many different countries, laughing and talking about everything and nothing with them, I can truly appreciate the significance of getting to know people and of understanding them. Now I even feel that if there were any politicians who planned to invade one of the countries where my fellow Fulbrighters live, then I would be ready to lay my own body on the line to stop that person. This is what we learned in Arizona, a lesson we would never learn from a textbook” says Minagawa. “Now August is for me the most special month in the year. It is a time to think about the past, pray for peace in the world and look at the bright future that I would build with my fellow Fulbrighters whom I met in the summer of 2006.”

Teresa states that “this program was not only about learning how to fill out papers or how to be more acquainted with the American culture but also about how to survive academically and spiritually in the United States”. Slim also thinks that the Pre-Ac might turn out to be not only a survival guide but a success package so that he and his fellows would be up and running from Day One in their grad schools.
“I personally liked being able to work on an interesting topic in our Group Project. It was a nourishing and challenging experience having to work on how to improve access to education in the developing countries as a way to achieve social justice. It was a project that was sketched from the ideas and experiences of people from Ethiopia, Mauritius, France, Honduras, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Senegal and El Salvador. That helped me realize that no matter where we are or where we happen to be born we have the same aspirations of social justice.”
“I might have missed the visit to the Grand Canyon but I gained something more worthy: lifelong friendships. I might not have liked the Smores but I’ll definitely say Gimme some more! just for the sake of getting together again.” Arizona is no longer just a cactus and a canyon for me and CESL stands for a Cool Experience in a Sunny Land, for Colorful Ethnicities with a Single Language (ok besides English!): Tolerance.”

“We parted different ways in the quest of the achievement of our individual dreams in the hope that we will eventually go back to our countries with hearts and minds eager to promote the change that we all ambition”.

The four Fulbrighters on behalf of the whole group would like to thank everyone in CESL (especially Ms. Helen and Dr. Suzanne Panferov), the University of Arizona, all the Fulbright scholarship staff from the IIE, the Amideast and the Laspau, their peer group counselors and their host families for giving them this wonderful, rewarding and empowering opportunity.