Our aim here at G22 is to teach the people of Guatemala and hopefully the world about the importance of responsible, sustainable living that helps to conserve our natural environment. Ultimately, G22 believes that environmental education starts at home and should be taught using real solutions applied in both rural and urban settings.

Photo courtesy of Bonnie NortonHere at G22, we're on the prowl for funding.

G22 just completed its application for the Echoing Green Fellowship which provides seed money for individuals and organizations that have big, bold ideas for social change. The 2012 Echoing Green application cycle opened in December 2011 and will end in June 2012 when the finalists are announced. Applicants must go through a three- stage process including interviews in New York. Typically 20 to 25 organizations are selected each year to receive an $80,000 stipend over two years for program and organizational development.

The thrill and rush I experienced while discussing, writing, and imagining the ideas that we have at G22 really got me thinking about the future and the endless possibilities. This quote from Confucius really speaks to the process at G22: “If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 year, teach the people.”

Currently, we are in the seedling stage (beginning stages) of our growth process. We are piloting programs designed to find the 22% of students, entrepreneurs and workers that have the attitude to incorporate environmental awareness, thereby helping us to reach the other 78%. For example, we are working with several local schools to develop projects that reach the 22% of the student population. The idea is to test these ideas and projects on a small scale, in order, to expand the G22 program in schools throughout the country. We here at G22 feel very optimistic about the process thus far!

We have garnered media attention including TV appearances and radio spotlights, so we know that we have what it takes to reach the masses! For now, we are letting things develop organically. Instead of searching out specific grants, we are thinking of creative ways we can generate money and interest that goes beyond the norm. Of course it wouldn’t hurt if a little seed money came our way, to help jumpstart our efforts. Either way, we will continue to push ahead by planting our seeds, watching our trees grow, and teaching the people how to live in harmony with nature!

Mindi Batson is currenting living in Guatemala City, Guatemala and working for G22 as Co-founder and Green Connect Program Developer, as well as an independent English teacher, psychologist, and yoga teacher.

Make sure to go see the towering volcanoes above Ibarra

Those volunteering in Ecuador for an extended period of time should find plenty of opportunities to explore the country. Whether your preference lies on or off the beaten path, Ecuador has something for everyone, no matter your physical shape, time or budget. Here are some recommendations of things to do in this beautiful, diverse country:

1. Visit the hot springs of Papallacta: Just a couple of hours away from Quito, Termas de Papallacta makes for a relaxing day trip from the city. For $7, you can soak in the thermal baths here, while watching hummingbirds buzz around in the surrounding vegetation. For those with a bit more cash, an overnight stay is recommended.
2. Whale-watching on the Pacific Coast: During the months of June to September, humpback whales can be spotted along the coast off Ecuador. Puerto López is a sleepy coastal town from which tours can be arranged to see these majestic animals breaching the water.
3. Quilotoa Loop: For an exciting three-day trip from Quito, visit the remote Quilotoa Loop. Challenging to reach by public transport, the area boasts outstanding natural beauty, a spectacular crater lake, excellent hiking and horseback riding, and a chance to peek into the lives of the colorful local indigenous communities.
4. Maquipucuna: Animal lovers will especially enjoy this eco-lodge, set amid pristine cloud forest and surrounded by spectacular wildlife. In the summer months, the rare spectacled bear can even be spotted! 
5. Iñaquito Market: Typifying traditional local life in the capital city, the bustling Iñaquito market in the north of Quito is a true cultural experience. Come here to buy your local groceries, sample some regional food, or just walk around and take in its sights and sounds.
6. Baños: If you love outdoor activities or nightlife, Baños is the spot for you. During the day, indulge in biking, rafting, rappelling or hiking. At night, hit up the town’s buzzing local night spots. If you’re lucky, you may even get a glimpse of the highly active Tungarahua volcano.
7. Catch the Symphonic Orchestra in Quito: For an evening of fine classical music and the chance to see the best musical talent Ecuador has to offer for only $5-10, head to Casa de la Música. Some events are even free. Check out upcoming events here.


Looking for gifts to bring home from Ecuador? Check out the Otavalo market north of Quito!

8. Climb the mighty Cotopaxi Volcano: Not for the fainthearted, a climb up one of the highest active volcanoes on Earth, Cotopaxi, starts at midnight and takes approximately five to seven hours to summit. It should be undertaken with a licensed guide. Biking downhill from the refuge is also an option.
9. Otavalo Market: Shop until you drop at one of the largest artisan markets in South America. On early Saturday mornings, head slightly out of town to the animal market for some great photographic opportunities. The indigenous market in the center of town (Plaza de Ponchos) is there every day, but Saturday is the busiest day of the week and has the most variety. For those that cannot get to Otavalo, the Mercado Artesanal on Jorge Washington in Quito has a similar range of products.
10. Explore the Jumandy Caves : Close to the jungle towns of Archidona and Tena, the Jumandy Caves can be visited daily. Tours include swimming by flashlight through the dark caverns and plunging into deep pools.

“I thought about the people who were left there. Who is going to care for them?’’

In the aftermath of Peace Corps pulling out of Honduras I have noticed two things in the media response: increased emphasis and focus on the violence and drug-trafficking going on in Honduras, and that sentiment countered by articles like the one above, lamenting Peace Corps’ decision and talking about all of the other volunteer organizations still working there.

Firstly, I am glad that there are still organizations working in Honduras in an effort to support the people there. Peace Corps is not the end all, be all of foreign aid to the country.

However, I have a big problem with the quote above. This is the number one problem I see in international volunteering and development practices and it all comes down to one itty-bitty word. Who is going to care “for them”?  It was never the job of a Peace Corps Volunteer, nor any development worker for that matter, to be the caregiver of a community. The Hondurans I know are all very capable and resilient people stuck in an extremely difficult situation with a government and justice system that does not work for them and an aid system that is not doing enough to empower them. (The keyword there is empower.)

The international community should care about what is going on in Honduras (or at least any country affected by the Drug Trade, Honduran emigration, and the resulting human rights issues should care). There is a difference, though, in caring about something and caring for something. The Honduran people need help in a lot of things, but that does not mean that all of the bleeding hearts of the developed world should go down there and hand feed all of the poor people and build houses for them (now, if you change that “for” to “with” and have a capacity-building component, that’s a different story). Doing things “for” people, especially people in a place as broken as Honduras, is hurting them much more than it is helping them. I call it the Charity Curse and Honduras has been a victim of it, in a way, for the past 50 years.

I am not happy about Peace Corps pulling out of Honduras, but considering the policy changes that Peace Corps needs to consider in order to improve operations in the country as a whole, it was the best decision. I am happy that there are organizations and groups that are able to continue their operations in the country and I wish them success, but it breaks my heart to think about how many mission trips and volunteer groups are led by that same sentiment: “who will care for these people?”

Please. Don’t care “for these people,” care “about” them. Teach them, empower them stand on their own two feet, help them demand accountability and transparency from their own government and organizations, but don’t go down there with gifts of food and houses thinking these people will be better off. More gringos will just be back in a year to do the same thing for the same people over and over again and nothing will change. That is the curse of charity; the curse of caring “for” something.

The problems and challenges Honduras faces are things that can only be solved by the Honduran people. They will need support, they may seek guidance, but if anyone tries to do it for them, whatever success is achieved will never last.

Amanda Browne is currently a Municipal Development Advisor for the Peace Corps in Honduras. For more on her experiences, check out her blog. This post is a response to Kate Bennett’s post “To Hell with Good Intentions?” in December, and a complement to Amanda’s recent post “Too Much Charity?” To hear more from Peace Corps Volunteers in Central America and the Caribbean, check out “Forever and a Day: 27 Months Abroad” by Joe Sigrin, “To Kiva Fellow or Not to Kiva Fellow,” by Rob Gradoville, or “The Peace Corps Pulls out of Honduras: The Spectrum of Human Emotion,” also by Amanda. Disclaimer: The contents of this article are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I just passed the three-weeks-in-Nicaragua mark (as well as the “I-can-talk-about-more-than-just-the-weather” mark in my Spanish lessons- quite the milestone, in my mind). So, bueno, La Vida Idealistas. I am a 26-year-old from Washington state, currently living in Leon, Nicaragua. I’ve traveled internationally a fair bit, including living in Taiwan, studying Mandarin Chinese– but this is my first time in Central America, as well as my first experience volunteering for an extended period– and so far I’m loving it.

My boyfriend, Turner, and I were lucky enough to be taken on as volunteers at an environmental education organization called Sonati, here in Leon. Sonati focuses on free environmental education for local communities (specifically, but not limited to, school-age children). The environmental programs are funded by Sonati’s hostel and nature tours- which is where I come in!

I am a volunteer guide for Sonati’s various volcano treks. Having loved doing anything outdoors since I was a small child, the opportunity to explore the natural environment surrounding Leon and the ability to share those places with others is the ideal volunteering experience for me.

Sonati is a relatively new non-profit organization (2009), and while they have many volunteers, Turner and I are the second and third volunteer trekking guides– so the process is not only new to us, but new to Sonati as well. Recipe for adventure? Yes. I’m look forward to sharing a first-timer’s experience volunteering, navigating the hierarchy of a fledgling non-profit, and exploring a natural landscape that is (for the most part) alien to me.

This is Alexa’s first post on La Vida Idealist. Alexa has just arrived in Nicaragua to begin work as a volunteer trekking guide with SONATI (Sociedad & Naturaleza Internacional). For more on hiking or working as a trekking guide in Central America, check out Sam Camarra’s series “Quetzaltrekkers: Into the Clouds.”

Walking on the road to Chaquijyá, Guatemala

This year, in order to further our understanding of global hunger, the Program Directors at all three MPI sites participated in the 30-hour fast organized by World Vision International. Though allowed to consume fruit juice, we were highly encouraged to not consume solid foods or coffee (eek!) from 1:00pm this past Thursday until 7:00pm the following Friday. In addition to the fast, PD’s also participated in service activities organized through their respective sites, and discussions concerning our personal sentiments regarding the fast. In Guatemala, we began our fast with an hour of service at a local feeding program and then conducted dialogues in house and with the Ecuador PDs via Skype. The fast was both physically and emotionally taxing, but we all persevered and I believed that we learned a great deal from the experience.

To be honest, when I first learned about the fast, I was not crazy about it for numerous reasons. Primarily, any given day, I probably spend more time eating than not, and I was not sold on the idea of forgoing food for an entire 30 hours. Additionally, I felt several moral qualms on the matter. Who were we to expect that a mere day-long fast would allow us to empathize with the suffering and turmoil of hunger victims? Watching movies on laptops, drinking clean water, and cozily sitting in our warm beds, we would be surrounded by numerous luxuries and we would have a kitchen stocked with food in case of emergency. We would begin the fast with the assurance of copious amounts of food in 30 hours and we would never suffer the anxiety of wondering the source of our next meal.

The fast also did not touch me initially at a personal level, as our physical experience of hunger could never resemble the experiences of the hungry in Chaquijyá. Many residents of Chaquijyá suffer from chronic hunger. While many of them may only eat one meal a day, they do eat. Our experience would more closely resemble the acute hunger of victims of natural disasters or war, whose food sources become cut off very suddenly. Like I said, there were numerous reasons. Overall, it seemed to me that our experience would not remotely resemble those lived by the impoverished, and I was hesitant to believe that the fast would affect my perspectives in working with the community members of Chaquijyá.

Having successfully completed the fast, I cannot say if the experience will affect how I make my lesson plans or teach my classes in Chaquijyá, but I can say that the fast did prove to be more enlightening than I had expected. Namely, even if the fast did not radically change my thoughts on world hunger, the experience did stimulate me to think. Though the fast was not “authentic” per say, hunger dominated my thoughts for 30 hours and compelled me to ask to ask more profound questions about myself and the larger issue. Indeed, I realized that is impossible for me to fathom the experience of chronic hunger. This realization excited in me both a rush of gratitude for the numerous blessings I am fortunate to enjoy, and also a larger appreciation for the resilience of people suffering from hunger. All over the world, people who survive on minimal food still work and struggle to support families. Often the most impoverished people possess the most physically taxing jobs, and millions of hungry people toil each day all the while still nourishing love for their families, religious beliefs, and/or inner determination.

I am so grateful for the smack-in-face, out-of-the-comfort-zone experience that was the fast. Sometimes I need a shock to my system to make me open my eyes and see the world around me more clearly. Global hunger is truly a world issue that cannot be fixed in a flash by one organization or government. Whether through monetary donations, volunteering, or spreading awareness, all of us must find our own ways to contribute to the struggle to insure food security for our fellow humans.

Ginny just finished a thirteen-month commitment as Program Director with Manna Project International-Guatemala and is returning to Guatemala to seek out other opportunities. For more on Ginny’s experiences in Guatemala, check out her blog.

Upon creating my vision board for the new year, it became clear to me that this year should be focused on striking a balance! With a jam-packed schedule, finding time for everything in my life in Guatemala may be difficult. I will be taking on a part-time English teaching job in the mornings at a private school followed by tutoring at a local psychology clinic. Most of my days will end with teaching one or two yoga classes. With a schedule that puts me rising at 5.30 a.m. and ending with work at 9.30 p.m., I am sure to fall into my bed exhausted each night.

So, the question that has come to me in recent days is, how will it be possible to keep up?

I need to make my work fun. How can I make teaching fun? Well, I think it will require innovation, creativity and excitement, along with a positive attitude. Also, I think giving meaning to my work will drive me forward. After all, social change is what I am after in my quest to reach kids and make a difference. How can I do that successfully? I think I must start by setting a clear purpose and theme for how I will reach students. I can do it in the standard way, or I can think outside of the box. In teaching with the use of creative, yet simple activities I hope to generate excitement in my students while meeting my objectives for each class. Let’s see how it works in practice! I am sure that I will learn just as much as the students this year!

Above all what I am realizing is that in order to keep it all in balance, I will have to make time for all areas of my life, and this will require careful planning! Right now, I don’t have the road map, I just have a starting point; but I know  that anything is possible with a little patience, gratitude, and faith!

Mindi Batson is currenting living in Guatemala City, Guatemala and working for G22 as Co-founder and Green Connect Program Developer, as well as an independent English teacher, psychologist, and yoga teacher.

“Do you have a husband?”

This is our family in our backyard in September 2012.

“Yes,” I replied. I was already annoyed- and wary, because I knew she already knew the answer and knew where she was heading due to the content of her grumbling.

“Huumm,” she replied, with her back still turned. “¿Blanco?” she asked, which means she was asking if my husband is white.

“No,” I replied, even angrier still, as she already knew the answer but wanted to have a way to let me know her thoughts.

“Humm,” she again replied, forcefully. “¿Negro?”

“Sí.” I looked at her daughter, the grandmother of the family, who just sort of smiled and looked at me to see how I would react. Her granddaughter and mother of a little three-year-old boy was cleaning behind us and was getting a kick out of her grandmother. She began laughing loudly and obviously at her grandmother’s comments. I was angry,  but I learned a long time ago that many times letting people know that they are upsetting you can be quite embarrassing in the Dominican Republic. I’ve done it on many occasions and had people actually listen as a result but I already knew that this family was not going to listen, but would only use a scene I would create to further criticize me. So I kept my cool.

In Spanish she went on to say, “I don’t like black. I like white.” This statement is completely confusing to a biracial family like ours. When I hear remarks such as these, it feels as though they are basically sucking up to me for no reason other than my stupid skin color (and mistreating my husband for the same stupid reason). I have seen other white people on this island who obviously use their white skin to advance themselves in the Dominican social world.

I recently ran into a German woman I used to work with at a bilingual school. She visited with me and my son Ilayas as we sat and ate a hamburger. It was during our short conversation that she learned that my husband, Ilayas’ father, is Haitian. Almost immediately, she switched tables to sit with a Dominican friend, where she spoke negatively about me and my Haitian-fathered son (who, by this point, was happily playing with her daughter). I ended up calling her out on it, and I will admit that I got a good cry in on the car ride home from that outing. I was heartbroken that anyone would speak negatively or hatefully toward my son who I love so much. But that was the first and last time I have and will cry over such stupidity.

Back in the great-grandmother’s cafeteria, I ended up asking the elderly woman if she had a husband and when she replied I returned her same strong “Huummm.” She went on to tell me that he is light and that she, again, doesn’t like black, she likes white. I told her that that was her problem between her and God, and not mine, I got my food and my change, and went on my way.

I briefly thought to boycott the cafeteria after this exchange, but ultimately I realize that perhaps I should be above the situation and still mingle with the family to a small extent. I think it was somewhat written off as a racist old grandmother act and me being a progressive young challenger of norms who is unavoidably going to receive such critiques, but unavoidably, like I said, challenge the norms in the minds of many observers.

Sometimes when I buy something at a small grocery store in the community or a food stand, the Dominican worker calls me “La Morena.” Many Haitians and darker Dominicans in this country are referred to as “Moreno” or “Morena” which is a word for dark. I am very light-skinned and Irish-looking so this is obviously a name referring to my dark, Haitian husband and strong association with Haitians in general. The first time someone called me Morena I took offense to it slightly because I knew the person was saying it in a negative way, but then quickly decided to take it as a compliment instead. After all, to take offense would be seen as agreement that there is something wrong with being dark-skinned.

For more posts on dealing with racism as a stranger in a foreign land, check out “I Can’t Say Chino” by Nereida Heller or “A Lesson in History: Race on the Island of Hispañola” by Cailtin McHale. Caitlin is currently living in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic as the co-founder and executive director of Project Esperanza.

The international aid community has struggled with this question for years: When a country is in dire straights in almost every aspect, what is the responsibility of the international community? But wait: let’s backtrack for a moment here.

Many a U.S. citizen has heard about the so-called “War on Drugs” (the term first used by President Nixon in 1971). We have seen movies like Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream that illustrate the dangers of addiction along with films like Traffic and Maria Full of Grace that give a glimpse into the dark side of the drug trade. We know we have an important to role to play in quashing it.

Many United Statesians are familiar with D.A.R.E. programs, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and efforts to legalize Marijuana. “Rehab” has been a pop culture buzzword for at least a decade now. Young, educated Americans are inundated with information about drugs, what they do, why they’re bad, why people do them anyway and (whether they know it or not) have access to a variety of rehabilitation programs should they develop a problem.

As far as the general understanding of the “War on Drugs” goes, I imagine your average American is like I was in their perception of it:

• It’s not a “real” war. Sending a bunch more DEA agents to Colombia and Mexico to root out cartels isn’t really like sending troops to Afghanistan.
• The “war” has put more users and dealers in jail (at least in the US) but it hasn’t necessarily decreased demand or production.
• We all assume that the best cocaine comes from Colombia and that the drug runner’s gateway to the U.S. in Mexico. We know that the United States is the land of consumerism. (Fun fact: The US consumes 90% of the world’s cocaine*)

But how many of us are aware of the effects the drug trade actually has on countries outside of the US. What percentage of us know that the “War on Drugs” is actually a legitimate war for many of those involved? Not very many, I wager.

Let’s take a look at Honduras. Increased efforts to weed out organized crime and corruption in Colombia and Mexico have created a vice that is essentially squeezing the violence from those two countries into the “Northern Triangle” of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). Put that in a context where more than 66% of Hondurans live in poverty, of which 45% live in extreme poverty (less than 2 dollars a day). Exploitation and its horrible consequences are bound to take hold.

The correlation between corruption, poverty, violence, and organized crime in Honduras is very much a chicken versus egg scenario. It’s hard to say which came first, but there is no denying that they are all part of a tangled web suffocating this country and that drug cartels play a significant role. When you look at the statistics, it is actually quite unnerving to see just how bad things have become here:

• Honduras jumped up to the #1 spot of highest murder rates in the world in 2011. In Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, the murder rate is 109 per year. In San Pedro Sula, 125.
• In the United States, the murder rate is about 6.  Yes, that’s a big difference, but let’s get even more specific: Chicago, or the “murder capital where they murder for capital” according to our man Kanye – 15 homicides (per 100,000 people) in the past year. New Orleans is the US city with the highest number on record in one year – 49.

Why, then, is there so much violence in Honduras? A variety of reasons, but mostly gangs and drugs. And why, then, hasn’t anything been done about it? In fact, why does it seem to be getting worse? Corruption and Poverty. Chicken meet Egg, Egg meet Chicken.

A large factor in the recent surge in violence throughout the country was the coup d’état in 2009. After the coup, there was a substantial amount of political instability and uncertainty that opened a window for gangs and cartels to increase their influence and power. Once the country was stabilized, it was too late. Organized crime had already bought its influence and the Lobo administration has been facing those consequences ever since. The most frustrating thing about situations like this is that there is not very much anybody can do about it; at least not from the outside.

What needs to happen is a mix of things that come from within the country. This signifies that the people of Honduras must work together to stand up for themselves and hold people accountable for their actions. That the government needs to weed out corruption and do what they need to do to actually uphold the law to protect its citizens.  This is all much easier said than done provided that corruption is currently rampant throughout the police force as well as among elected officials, and people who stand up to gangs and other abusers of peace are often killed as an example to the rest of the community.

It is a sad and dangerous situation that provides a significant challenge to international volunteers and organizations. There are still a lot of good works to be done to support and empower Hondurans in their efforts to improve their economic situation and standard of living.

However, the question that comes to mind in situations like this is: when is it necessary to step away? Is it “tough love” in the best interest of the country to let them figure things out on their own? Or is it abandoning them in their time of need? So coming back to the beginning: the international aid community has struggled with these questions for years. But what is the role of the international community- nonprofit organizations, states and governments, and the humble volunteer- when a country is struggling from bottom up?

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. Amanda is currently a Municipal Development Advisor for the Peace Corps in Honduras. For more on her experiences, check out her blog.

Money and volunteering. It’s an important subject. Because while you may be willing to work for free, life itself is not free. Flights to the Southern Hemisphere don’t just magically pay for themselves. Neither do Spanish lessons, anti-diarrhea medications, mosquito nets, or SteriPENs. (If you don’t know the magic wand of light that is the SteriPEN, see Kate Bennett’s volunteer packing tips, #17). All these costs can add up to some serious plata and this can dampen your ambitious young dream of volunteering in Latin America.

But have no fear! I have some good fundraising news for you. The Learn, Intern, Volunteer Fund a.k.a LIVFund is a recently established organization that awards small scholarships to individuals learning, doing an internship or volunteering abroad in Latin America. Believing that “the exchange of cultures makes the world a better place,” every month LIVFund awards two US$500 scholarships to deserving applicants. While $500 will not cover your whole volunteer gig, it can certainly help you reach your goal of exploring new cultures and experiencing daily life in Latin America.

Sounds almost too good to be true, right? If you’re as skeptical as I am, you may be thinking, My mama didn’t raise no fool. What’s the catch? Well, there are a few.

First, you have to apply for the scholarship (sometimes in life you have to put effort in). Second, you must be at least 18 years old and learn/intern/volunteer for at least one week. Lastly, if you are chosen to receive the scholarship, then you will have to submit three blog posts/videos/creative self-expressions for the LIVFund Blog (couldn’t hurt to submit them to La Vida Idealist, either!).

Kiva and Peace Corps volunteers are 100% eligible to apply as well as participants in formal internship and study abroad programs. Looking to do something on your own? No problem. LIVFund actively supports independent go-getters who are looking to get their hands dirty by implementing self-designed projects. The fund accepts applications all year round.

So, what are you waiting for?

To find out more information about LIVFund as well as a complete list of eligible countries in Latin America, check out the LIVFund website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter under the handle @LIVFund.

Megan Kaseburg is currently the International Volunteer Coordinator with Habitat for Humanity Argentina. To hear more about her experiences, check out her blog.

Howdy from the United States! As wonderful as it is to wake up in my own bed, overindulge in American food, and catch up with family and friends, I miss Brazil. Luckily, the few Brazilians I know in Philadelphia have tolerated incessant invitations to hang out, helping me to matar a saudade do Brasil.

For those considering a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, I recommend it without hesitation or reservation. Teaching in Brazil was the most enriching experience of my life. If the idea of learning a new language; meeting the kindest, most welcoming people on earth; exploring new food and music; and challenging yourself to reexamine what it means to be American appeals to you, please apply to teach in Brazil! If I’ve convinced you, I want to give you the tools to make it happen: here’s a brief, cut and dry how-to-guide for the application process.

The Timeline

Because applications must be submitted in September, it’s important to begin working on your application and start lining up your references over the summer. I started late, and as a result had to scramble during August and early September.

If you are an enrolled student or are applying through an academic institution, I highly recommend that you contact your college or university’s career services.If my college’s career services can serve as an example, the folks there will encourage you to visit the Fulbright website regularly and to reach out immediately to your potential references, as filling out the recommendation forms often takes time. I was relieved to know that my three references had completed and submitted their recommendations two weeks before the application was due.

The Application

Next, all applicants are required to complete the application (available online), which includes two essays – a Statement of Grant Purpose and a Personal Statement. In the Statement of Grant Purpose, applicants are asked to write about what draws them both to the country in which they would like to work and to teaching. The Personal Statement requires candidates to reflect upon how they hope their Fulbright experiences might fit into their future career plans.

For some countries, including Brazil, the application calls for a language examination. The language examination form can be found on the Fulbright website. Like recommenders, language examiners tend to like being asked early so that they have time to complete the examination and the subsequent report.

The Waiting

After submitting all written documents, candidates must conduct a short interview (approximately 20 minutes long, if memory serves). If you are affiliated with a college or university, the interview will take place on campus with members of your institution’s Fulbright committee. Several weeks after you submit the application to your academic institution (if that applies), all applicants will submit their applications online to the Fulbright commission. Finally – the worst part – waiting! Finalists learn of their status at the end of January, then grantees hear definitively sometime between March and June.

I hope this helps. Please contact me with any questions at gabriel.b.friedman@gmail.com; I am more than happy to help, if I can.

Thanks for reading! I loved being a part of the La Vida Idealist community, and I look forward to continuing to learn from y’all. Um forte abraço, Gabe.

For more tips on working within the Fulbright Teaching Assistantships or Fellowships, check out “Guest Post: To Kiva Fellow or not to Kiva Fellow, Eso e’ la pregunta. (Part II of III” by Rob Gradoville Jr.,  ”Volunteerism in Latin America: The Big Picture” by Flora Lindsay-Herrera, or read about Lianne Gonsalves’s experiences in Caracas, Venezuela. This is Gabe Friedman’s last post on La Vida Idealist. Gabe just finished a stint as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at the Instituto Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos (ICBEU) in Manaus, Brazil and is now working towards the betterment of educational policy in New Jersey as the Special Assistant to Mayor Cory Booker’s Lead Education Advisor.