At the height of COVID-19, Nicole Attram developed severe lower back pain which impeded her mobility and flexibility. While physical therapy helped mitigate the symptoms, the cause is still unknown. That experience determined the course of her career. After graduating from UMBC in 2023, Attram, mechanical engineering, received a 2024 – 2025 Fulbright U.S. Student award to study in Milan, Italy, in a master’s program in international healthcare management, economics, and policy specializing in pharmaceuticals and medical technology at the SDA Bocconi School of Management.

“This experience has inspired my interest in orthopedic biomechanics, particularly prosthetics, and exoskeletons, to help restore autonomy to individuals with lifelong mobility challenges,” shares Attram on her website. “I aim to conduct research at the intersection of systemic racism, healthcare policy, and orthopedic biomechanics to offer holistic care and assistive technology to underserved communities.” 

Each year, more than 10,000 students apply to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program with just over 2,000 selected from hundreds of colleges and universities across the U.S. In the last decade, UMBC students and alumni have received more than 85 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for research and teaching placements in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, South America, and Europe. UMBC was named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for the third time in five years for the 2023 – 2024 cycle.

Attram’s mentor Maria C. Sanchez, director of the Grand Challenge Scholars Program, professor of the practice, and director of the Engineering and Computing Education Program, says, “Nicole always displayed the motivation, perseverance, and inquisitiveness of a successful researcher. She also demonstrated a high level of global awareness that was refreshing to see in a non-international undergraduate student.”

Advancing global research

Attram is among eight recent graduates and alumni in UMBC’s 2024 – 2025 Fulbright U.S. Student Program class who are sharing their knowledge and building community around the world by earning a master’s degree, conducting research, or teaching English. This year is especially significant, as six of eight awards are research-focused, marking the highest number of research awards in UMBC’s Fulbright history. Students seeking research awards must develop a proposal in coordination with potential advisers in the universities and laboratories where they want to study as part of their application. Graduate degree awards require submitting both Fulbright and graduate school applications.

1. Arpita Tuladhar ’23 public health, Research Award to Germany
2. Jennifer Sorrells ’22, political science, Research Award to North Macedonia
3. Jolie Greer ’24, psychology, Research Award to Bulgaria 
4. Lauren Mister ’24, teaching English to speakers of other languages, English Teaching Award to Bahrain
5. Sarah-Fatime Yoda ’24, chemical engineering, Research Award to France
6. Stuart Holton ’24, political science, English Teaching Award to Slovakia
7. Timothy Mallard, M.A. ’21, teaching English to speakers of other languages, Research Award to Uganda

“This year’s cohort of Fulbright recipients and alternates shows the country and the globe what we at UMBC already know,” says Brian Souders, Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, M.A.’19, TESOL, the associate director of global learning at UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement. In this role, Souders, who received a 2023 Fulbright International Education Administrator Award to Germany, has led hundreds of Retrievers through the Fulbright application process as UMBC’s Fulbright Program advisor. “We produce world-class graduates who will lead the future with their work in laboratories, in the field, and in the classrooms throughout the world.” (Image by Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

Learn more about UMBC’s Fulbright Program.

This summer, UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement (CGE) is excited to welcome its second cohort of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the six-week flagship program of the U.S. Government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). The new cohort includes 25 innovators from countries across Sub-Saharan Africa representing education, journalism, tech, health care, and more. The fellows will spend six weeks living at UMBC networking and attending diversity and leadership skills workshops. They will also meet with campus, local, and state leaders, learn more about Baltimore’s LGBTQ+ leaders of color, developmental disabilities at The ARC Baltimore, trauma-informed practices, and more.

“The fellowship is a beacon of hope,” says Jok Thon, M.P.S. ’24, entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership, a 2018 University of Delaware YALI fellow and UMBC’s first Global Peaceworker Fellow. Thon is a father of four and the director and founder of Promised Land Primary and Secondary School and Promised Land College in Juba, South Sudan, which has educated over 1500 displaced students. “As a witness and participant in this transformative experience, I wholeheartedly attest the journey is as profound for the mentors as it is for the fellows.” 

Thousands of leaders ages 25 – 35, across 49 Sub-Saharan African countries covet a prestigious YALI fellowship. YALI hopefuls must condense years of leadership in business, civic engagement, and public management into one application, demonstrating concrete ongoing efforts to broaden access to education, health care, and workforce development. These 700 spots across 28 U.S. educational institutions are considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for both fellows and host institutions, to strengthen connections between the U.S. and Africa and establish enduring partnerships between fellows, local communities, and private businesses through their expertise, perspectives, and experiences.

“YALI is a huge deal in my country and Africa. It’s a journey I want to take with my whole community, nation, and the world,” says 2023 UMBC YALI fellow Victoria Merab Akinyi. She is the CEO and co-founder of Streetlights Uganda, a visual and performing arts-based organization empowering children living on the streets with entrepreneurship and life skills to become self-employed and engaged citizens.

“I have a master’s degree in fine arts and two fashion companies. I don’t take my degrees, work with my community, and my YALI experiences for granted because they have all helped open doors for me.”

Creating a Retriever YALI Village

Becoming a YALI host is also an arduous but worthwhile process. It requires developing a six-week international residency program unique to the institution’s resources and the fellows’ needs. When Ryan Sheldon, M.A. ’15, teaching English to speakers of other languages, director of the English Language Institute and special programs within CGE, and Madison Pickard, M.A. ’24, intercultural communication, and assistant director of special programs and co-academic director of the YALI Fellowship, applied to bring YALI to UMBC in 2023, Thon was excited to join the team as a program assistant.

“It was so valuable to our fellowship having Jok as a program assistant and a resource for the fellows while they were here,” says Pickard. “Jok assisted the fellows in leadership activities, accompanied us on on-site visits, and facilitated their weekly feedback and reflection sessions as our leadership coordinator.”

Designing a “Retriever YALI Village” requires many hands. The village was equipped with campus housing, transportation, catering, activities, and a budget for each fellow. Thanks to campus and community partners, it also included workshops, projects, events, and speakers. 

“We invited trusted partners aligned with our fellows, had conversations with them, and created a space for the fellows to choose their level of engagement,” says Pickard. The proposal was a winner.

In summer 2023, 24 young African leaders came to UMBC to share and learn new skills to empower them as critical leaders in addressing issues facing women, girls, and children, mental and public health, education, community organizing, NGO management, sustainability, and more. Fellows engaged in academic sessions, community service, site visits, and networking events and met state and local government leaders, businesses, and community organizations. They also joined in Baltimore’s baseball season at the Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

“Together, we explored the notion that true leadership is rooted in service and that we can drive meaningful progress by embracing diversity and harnessing collective strengths,” says Thon. Due to the program’s success, UMBC was chosen to host again in June 2024. 

All for all

Fellows are often inspired into action by personal experiences. Their superpower is knowing they alone are not the answer. Fellows share their community-building strategies and acquire new expertise to address ongoing challenges. It’s not all-for-one, or one-for-all, but all-for-all.

Leveraging social media for social justice is a key approach for Ellen Kalaputse Nanyeni, a financial modeling and valuation analyst from Namibia. As a survivor of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), she understands the victim blaming and legal hurdles survivors face to access care and protection. Nanyeni promotes equal opportunity rights and the safety of women in Namibia via the #Shutitalldown Namibia SGBV awareness social media movement and through the #Breakfree #Befree support services initiative established by Monica Geingos, the First Lady of Namibia.

In Nigeria, Sunday Emmanuel Onuche networks with schools and disability organizations to further disability justice. Onuche promotes inclusion, leadership opportunities, and self-reliance for people with disabilities like himself via his VisionLink Initiative. 

Skateboarding is John Kabiye Kalenga’s community development tool. As a professional skateboarder and the coach for Zambia’s first Olympic skateboard team at the 2022 Tokyo Olympics, Kalenga lives and breathes the sense of belonging skateboarding has given him. As vice president of the Skate Association of Zambia, he teamed up with more than 30 international skatepark construction volunteers to build Zambia’s first-ever skatepark creating a safe haven for young people. 

CNN World: Zambian instructor empowers kids through skateboarding

These are just a few of the 2023 YALI fellows who connected over the summer of 2023 and returned to their countries with new leadership skills and tools for change.

Implementing the YALI Way

YALI is one summer, but it’s what comes afterward when the fellows return home that the work truly becomes YALI work. Merab Akinyi returned to Uganda intent on expanding Streetlights Uganda’s reach. She fundraised to remodel old houses in areas of high need. The additional classrooms and offices launched the Ntunga project, Changing Lives Through Fashion. It equips women and children with marketable skills to sustain their families. Her team continues to run the Mwalimu Mentorship, an apprenticeship connecting artists with youth, and the Unseen Me children’s exhibition. 

Currently, Streetlights Uganda manages two training centers for women and two for street children. Merab Akinyi and her team of seven organizers have reached over 60 women in the past 3 years and over 400 street children.

Merab Akinyi’s next project is inspired by a YALI fellow who reuses empty bottles for building construction. “Many bottles are lying around. We are looking to develop an awareness campaign on how to use bottles to save the environment,” says Merab Akinyi. “These bottles can be repurposed to fix drainage problems around the centers and add more space.”

Pickard notes this is the goal of the fellowship. “We create opportunities for fellows to learn from each other and for everyone to challenge and develop their personal growth and values.” 

Overlapping hearts and minds

The deep sense of camaraderie drew the attention of UMBC community members outside of YALI resulting in powerful friendships and mentorships that continue to this day. Pickard connected Merab Akinyi with artist Ariel Valéria Barbosa, M.P.S. ’24, community leadership, after noticing Merab Akinyi’s passion for using art as a vehicle for change. Barbosa is the program coordinator for UMBC’s food pantry Retriever Essentials and leads A Gente, an organization that gives opportunities to Black artists to travel to the African Diaspora to co-create free exhibitions for the local community. 

“There are similarities in our surrealist art styles and wanting to use the little we have and our charisma and intelligence to expand impact for our people,” says Barbosa. “Victoria is really good at what she does, and I want her talents to be nurtured and supported.” Barbosa linked Pickard with DewMore, a nonprofit that uses poetry as a platform for youth leadership.

“It was full circle for me to listen to Victoria read a poem she wrote during the DewMore poetry workshop about her experience in Baltimore,” says Barbosa. “She carries herself with a lot of composure and dignity, like a voice for the people. That is just who she is.”

Ariel Barbosa and Victoria Merab Akinyi. (Image courtesy of Merab Akiniyi.)

A smile goes a long way

Lovetta Y. Qualah is the founder and CEO of Positive Actions Driving Safety (PADS), which addresses period poverty by providing free sanitary products to women and girls in Monrovia, Liberia. She found a kindred heart in Namrata Oruganti ’24, biology. As a summer conference assistant, Oruganti helped code keys, fold towels, organize sheets, and prepare comforters for the fellows. “I was blessed to be at that desk,” says Oruganti. The first night, the YALI group organized a party for a fellow who had arrived on his birthday. 

“I couldn’t believe the fellows weren’t familiar with each other. Each person contributed something they already had,” says Oruganti. They invited her to share a meal and, once they learned of her love for Afro-beats, to dance.

Oruganti had no idea they were CEOs or experts. “Not one person made me feel like I was less than them. People in leadership sometimes forget that,” says Oruganti, known to her friends—which now include the fellows—as Smiley. “Sometimes I forget.” 

“Smiley took an interest in me as a person, my work, and my progress,” says Qualah. “Smiley was a really good ambassador for UMBC. She is an image of positive energy. Always checking in on everybody.”

As Oruganti applies to medical school, she keeps her YALI lessons in mind. “The fellows are the most amazing, sweet, and humble people. They taught me how to be a collective,” says Oruganti. “They will always be part of my life story.” The fellows congratulated her on her recent graduation on their WhatsApp chat. “Smiley wasn’t even a part of YALI but she became an integral part,” says Qualah.
(Image courtesy of Oruganti)

Conversation + connection = action

Deep understanding is the goal. Mentorship is the path. To listen, think, share, and reflect is the YALI way. With the help of mentors like Joby Taylor, Ph.D. ’05, language, literacy, and culture, and director of the Shriver Center, fellows build mentorship tools to better communicate with their communities and instill mentorship programs. Taylor led a workshop on place, sense of place, and placemaking as social change in Africa and Baltimore City.

“Jok and I have had a two-year conversation where we have learned so much about leadership from each other and South Sudan and Baltimore,” says Taylor, who is also Thon’s host family. “Living and working with him makes you want to be a better person.” 

Thon put theory to practice by helping fellows complete paperwork and hone their professionalism skills. “This was my favorite part because I saw myself in their work and they saw themselves in my work at UMBC and back home in South Sudan,” says Thon. Heplayed basketball with them every Sunday. “They called me their mentor and big brother.”

Merab Akinyi appreciated the intention, “Beyond the classes, the dedication, and humility of the facilitators—especially Ryan Sheldon, Madison, and Jok—were great lessons to me as a leader and great virtues for me to take back home.”

(l-r): Pickard, Merab Akinyi, Sheldon, David Di Maria, senior international officer and associate vice provost for international education. (Image courtesy of Mirab Akinyi)

A year later, Qualah continues to reflect on the fears she had while at YALI and how UMBC community members helped her overcome this. “While at YALI I had imposter syndrome. I was looking for validation every day,” says Qualah. “Everything changed when I met amazing people at UMBC: President Valerie Sheares Ashby, Sally Scott, Madison Pickard, Ryan Sheldon, Jok Thon, and, my dear friend and YALI fellow, Lillian Ndilwa. They challenged my perspective, highlighting the unique value I bring and the importance of my contributions. Words like ‘You deserve to be here,’ and ‘Your work is needed’ resonated deeply.” Today, Qualah puts these beliefs to work and is a visible and outspoken leader sharing PADS’ success and her UMBC YALI experience on Facebook.

Africans for Africa

This year, YALI celebrates its 10th anniversary. Nearly 6,500 leaders have taken YALI’s multi-tiered mentorship approach across all sub-Saharan countries. Thon notes convening 20-plus African leaders in one room is a feat on its own. “It’s hard bringing people together in Africa,” he says. “I can have connections in Congo or Kenya because those are my neighboring countries, but you cannot really know what the young people are doing in South Africa from South Sudan or a West African country.”

This summer Thon will extend the YALI ripple effect, working as a partnership associate at CorpsAfrica, a non-profit organization focused on engaging youth and helping rural communities overcome extreme poverty.

“Every little act of peace and kindness gets us closer to building a just and prosperous society where there is no weak or strong, poor or rich,” says Thon, “but a society that thrives on the basic principles of living a dignified life guided by empathy.”

Neurodiversity inclusion and representation have been at the forefront of Michael Canale’s 20-year career in the disability services and education field. Canale, M.A. ’24, intercultural communication, is the assistant director of UMBC’s Office of Student Disability Services and teaches the first-year seminar Introduction to Disability Studies. “Sometimes parents of neurodivergent students worry that their child is incapable of learning another language,” says Canale. “I work with parents to ease their fears by showing them how their child can excel in college with the proper individualized accommodations.” These can include note-taking software, counseling services, tutoring, time management support, and more.

When Canele, who also received his post-master’s certificate in college teaching and learning science, heard that UMBC’s first Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Jules Buendgens-Kosten,would be teaching Language Learning and Special Education – Advanced Special Topics in Education, he was quick to enroll. The course, part of UMBC’s teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) master’s program, was designed for anybody planning to work with heterogeneous groups of learners, including those of different neurotypes, both in special education and mainstream education settings. 

Buendgens-Kosten, a research assistant at the Institute of English and American Studies at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany,began theirpartnership with UMBC as a research collaboration with Shannon Sauro, associate professor of education.Sauro recognized that Buendgens-Kosten’s expertise in English language teaching and teaching neurodivergent populations in Germany would add an international and non-U.S.-based perspective to UMBC’s TESOL program and education department. 

My uni (@UMBC) just got so much geekier and cooler.

Currently, Brian Souders is the associate director for global learning in the Center for Global Engagement at UMBC. But Brian, who came to UMBC in 2000 to be the university’s inaugural study abroad coordinator, has worn a number of hats in his 20+ years as a Retriever. He’s a two time alum (Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy, and culture, M.A. ’19, TESOL), and after years of helping faculty and students achieve their overseas learning and research goals, Brian recently took part in his own Fulbright exchange program. Take it away, Brian!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I have been a global soul since my first international experience as a high-school exchange student in Finland several decades ago. That initial experience led me to a career in international exchange that has lasted more than two decades at UMBC. My UMBC path also led to doctoral work in the language, literacy, and culture program, as well as a master’s degree in our TESOL program.

Q: Tell us about what you love about where you work.

A: I work in UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement (CGE), and our mission is to support international opportunities for both our incoming degree-seeking students, our English-language learners, and our outbound study abroad students. Having been at the CGE for what I call a non-insignificant amount of time has allowed me to see just how much we have grown and changed to support the global learning aspirations of our UMBC community. 

Q: What brought you to UMBC in the first place? Tell us about your primary WHY, and how it led you to UMBC.

A: I came to UMBC because I was offered the opportunity to build a structure for UMBC students to study abroad. I had worked as a study abroad advisor at a Big 10 university for several years, but I wanted to take those skills and apply them elsewhere. In 2000, I saw a job advertisement to serve as the inaugural study abroad coordinator at UMBC in what was then called the International Education Services Office. I interviewed for and got the job. I moved to Maryland, and I have not looked back since!

Q: Tell us about the people who are helping you grow at UMBC, and why their HOW made such a difference to you.

A: There are too many people to name! It was an honor to work with Arlene Wergin, the director of the International Education Services Office until her retirement in 2016. She was a constant source of professional and personal support during the initial years of my time at UMBC.

David Di Maria, our associate vice provost for international education, led me to dream big, when I transitioned away from education abroad administration to a role focused solely on my current work of fellowships advising with a focus on the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Katie Heird, UMBC’s inaugural director of study abroad and global learning, has been a partner in global collaboration for 15 years—and it was with her encouragement that I applied for my own Fulbright, which I received this year.

Q: What did you learn from your own Fulbright experience, and what did you bring back from that to offer to UMBC students and faculty?

A: Probably the biggest lesson I took from the seminar is that the German-American educational relation is a strong one—in spite of the differences in our educational systems. There are aspects of the higher education landscape that make for some challenges in semester-length exchanges, but there is an incredible enthusiasm among our German university colleagues and partners to host American students and scholars. I can happily tell our faculty and staff that Germany’s institutions of higher education are beyond enthusiastic and welcoming to American faculty and students to come learn more about what their country has to offer. 

Q: What do you love most about your job?

A: I get to fulfill dreams. I work with both talented students and our amazing faculty and staff to find funding opportunities to go global. In my job, I work with the UMBC community to put their dreams into words. Working with the Fulbright Program—the largest educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State—allows me the chance to help build future leaders in global affairs. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

This year, the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program, has awarded nine UMBC students and alumni top research and teaching placements in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and North Macedonia. 

Each year, more than 10,000 students apply with just over 2,000 selected from hundreds of colleges and universities across the U.S. In the last decade, UMBC students and alumni have received more than 85 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for research and teaching placements in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, South America, and Europe. UMBC was named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution in 2019 – 2020.

This year’s class includes research award recipient Paul Ocone ’22, individualized study, who will be conducting research at Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies in Japan. Fulbright research awards provide funding for research and training efforts overseas with a focus on non-Western foreign languages and area studies. Additionally, there are eight UMBC recipients of the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) award. ETA’s develop their own language skills and knowledge of their host country while working with student in elementary through college to strengthen their English-language abilities and knowledge of the U.S.

Three alumni will be headed to Taiwan to further their passion for global languages and communities: Nailah-Benā Chambers ’23, global studies, Kara Gavin ’20, English, and Milan Richardson ’23, bioinformatics.

Gavin brings experience as a Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESOL) volunteer which she completed during her study abroad program at the University of Brighton in the U.K. Chambers began learning how to move between different languages early in life as a student in a Chinese-language skills course. She later became a tutor, a skill she continued at UMBC’s English Language Institute (ELI). Teaching Baltimore Public City School’s diverse student population inspired Richardson to apply to the Fulbright program where she will continue working with students from all backgrounds.

David Bullman ’22, ancient studies, served in the U.S. Army as a musician and public diplomat. He will be returning to North Macedonia, one of the countries he previously served in.

In addition to teaching English, Leah Michaels, M.F.A ’21, intermedia and digital arts, will be conducting research for two films and teaching film workshops for the community in Piła, Poland.

Tiffany Powell ’23, TESOL, spent three years teaching English in Seoul, Korea and will continue teaching in Romania after she graduates in December.

Sianna Serio ’23, computer science, who studied abroad in France, Spain, and the U.K., will head to the Slovak Republic to teach high school students.

As a former marketing assistant at the ELI, Tasneem Mansour ’20, modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication, supported visiting students from Peru, Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan. Mansour will head to South Korea.

Tasneem Mansour, third from the left, with students from Nippon Sport-Science University in Tokyo, Japan. (Image courtesy of Tasneem Mansour)

UMBC’s global outlook

UMBC’s commitment to international collaboration and research begins at the Center for Global Engagement, which connects students and faculty from the U.S. with students and distinguished faculty from more than 100 countries with unique international academic opportunities. Together, they further the research and skills needed to address long-standing and new global challenges. 

Brian Souders, M.A.’19, TESOL and Ph.D. ’09, language, literacy and culture, the associate director of global learning of the Center for Global Engagement, has led students through the Fulbright application process, as UMBC’s Fulbright Program advisor, for the last decade. “Our students are high achievers, the application process is a place for them to share their story,” says Souders. “Faculty and staff are there to ensure each student’s application reflects their years of hard work and the skills they have developed to collaborate with partners across the world.”

Souders (front left)with UMBC’s 2019 – 2020 Fulbright U.S. Student recipients.

Research at home and abroad

With the vast network of Fulbright alumni at UMBC and across the U.S., it’s always helpful to get tips on how to conduct research in a new country and in a new language. Fulbright recipient Ocone, a long time fan of all things anime, began developing his ethnographic research skills with the support of Bambi Chapin, associate professor of anthropology. Chapin, a 1999 – 2000 Fulbright recipient, taught Ocone the theoretical and practical aspects of ethnographic research which he will now use to research the politics of inclusion and exclusion in otaku (anime/manga fan) spaces.

Chapin, along with Julie Christ Oakes, the assistant director of curriculum and retention of the Honors College and a 2001 – 2002 Fulbright research award recipient to Japan, also workshopped Ocone’s research proposal and Fulbright application. Oakes also shared her insights on the Fulbright experience.

“I went to Japan to do research for my dissertation research,” says Oakes. “I have a good idea of what [Ocone] will face as a relative “newbie” abroad and a non-native Japanese speaker and reader.” 

The Fulbright experience is also about nurturing relationships with faculty abroad. Ocone said he feels honored for the opportunity to further his research with Kaichiro Morikawa, an associate professor at Meiji University and author of one of the foundational books on otaku spaces. Morikawa will help Ocone navigate the various resources on otaku culture. He wrote in Ocone’s recommendation letter that his “research is highly original as well as effectively focused,” and says he looks forward to supporting Ocone during his time at the university and in Japan. 

“I am immensely grateful to all of my mentors for guiding me on my journey through my undergraduate degree—from my earliest fuzzy and broad ideas of what I wanted to do, to the more specific research plans, and to the rewarding thesis that eventually emerged,” says Ocone. “I’ll be continuing research on topics that I care deeply about, research that I will likely build upon in graduate school and beyond.”

Fulbright support network

The road to being a Fulbright recipient begins day one students’ UMBC experience as they explore majors, create a network of mentors, and hone their research skills. At the end of their junior year, students develop their initial application at the Fulbright Base Camp led by Souders, who is a 2023 – 2024 Fulbright International Education Administrator award recipient. “The camp helps elevate and support students to reach their Fulbright goals,” says Souders. “Students share drafts of their essays with me for feedback prior to the campus deadline, the first day of the fall semester. They participate in a campus evaluation process with UMBC faculty and staff to receive feedback on their applications.”

Souders, Chapin, and Maryam Elhabashy ’21, anthropology, a research assistant at Rutgers University and a 2022 Fulbright recipient to Kuwait City, discuss this process on the Retrieving the Social Science podcast, produced by UMBC’s Center for Social Science Scholarship.

“The panel gives students advice about how to craft a project, like how to take it apart and re-put it back together, what we see as strengths,” says Chapin. “We support them and encourage them as they go through that really difficult intellectual work, emotional work of figuring out how to make their strong projects even stronger.” 

Learn more about the UMBC’s international education opportunities.

Grant Clifton 

Degree: M.A., Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Hometown: Fresno, CA
Post-grad plans: English language educator in Indonesia

For Grant Clifton, teaching English effectively requires a combination of intensive technical training in English language instruction and a passion for building community. Prior to enrolling at UMBC, Clifton taught English at a school in Indonesia for several years. He has a long-standing commitment to service and community engagement, which included being a Peace Corps volunteer in Indonesia from 2017 to 2019, where he taught English to high school students.

After returning to the U.S., Clifton continued his combined focus on learning and community impact through UMBC’s Shriver Peaceworker Fellows program. Additionally, he worked as a writing tutor at the English Language Institute (ELI) and facilitated in-person and virtual conversation clubs with ELI’s English Conversation Partner program. Clifton shares that leading the conversation clubs was important to him because he was “able to see English learners gain more confidence and improve their conversational skills through the community I’ve built with them.”

As a TESOL research assistant, Clifton worked with Jiyoon Lee, associate professor of education, exploring issues of English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers’ and learners’ language assessment literacy. He recently presented this research at the 2023 American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting. After graduation, Clifton will return to Indonesia to teach English at an international school. 

Has there been a mentor or fellow student who influenced your time at UMBC?

“My supervisor at the English Language Institute, Ryan Sheldon, has been a mentor to me during my entire time at UMBC. He has provided me with a lot of opportunities for professional growth and supported me through some really tough times. Few can say that their boss has made their life easier!”

Is there a particular academic achievement you’re most proud of?

“Being accepted to the Shriver Peaceworker Program at UMBC is the achievement I am most proud of. We were able to act as a support group for one another and exchange ideas in weekly practicum seminars on topics related to social engagement and ethical reflection. I learned so much and grew significantly as a person, thanks to the program. I don’t think I would have been as successful or would have made as much personal growth if I had not been part of the Shriver Peaceworker Program. 

Additionally, I am proud of completing and successfully defending my thesis after a long series of delays and mishaps, which left me feeling discouraged at times, all while being a full-time student and working 30-40 hours a week.”

Headshot of Sauro by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Your favorite heroes are joining forces to fight Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. Suddenly, you watch as one by one, they are dropped off on Sesame Street in New York City. You’re seeing the story unfold on the page because you’re creating a merged universe as an exercise to enhance your English language skills. What will happen next? Only you know.

This interplay of fanfiction in language learning and instruction is what Shannon Sauro, associate professor of education and faculty member in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program at UMBC, strives to showcase in her reading and writing courses. (Indeed, one of Sauro’s students proved that they could merge the Avengers and Sesame Street into one universe for a fanfiction project.)

Fandoms exist in numerous forms, whether related to movies, TV shows, novels, music, video games, or other aspects of pop culture. But how is it relevant to teaching and learning? As Sauro explains, quoting fan studies scholar Mark Duffett, a fan is “someone who has a strong, positive emotional connection to someone or something famous.” Her students come from different backgrounds with these connections under their belt, which makes it easier for them to form an emotional connection to the work as it unfolds. This ultimately helps them gain new language skills.

Learning for fun

Prior to moving to the U.S., Sauro lived and taught in Sweden, where she noticed that many students used fanfiction to develop their English language skills. These students took part not only in consuming media in English, but also discussing this media in their own fandom communities. 

Maryland language teachers take part in a workshop on fanfiction for foreign language teaching held by the UMBC TESOL program in November of 2019. Photo courtesy of Sauro, standing.

“We can see different cultural attitudes around fiction writing, and I found this refreshing in Sweden because in the Swedish national curriculum, they emphasize the learning of foreign languages not just for work, but also pleasure and the consumption of cultural products [and] self-expression,” shares Sauro. “So writing fanfiction is something you do with language. It’s not considered frivolous or not academic.”

In the U.S., this integration of fanfiction into language learning may not look as familiar to students and instructors. But fanfiction can enable students’ creativity while building on necessary reading and writing skills.

Gaining appreciation for the craft

Headshot courtesy of BB Kim.

Language-learning classes often stress the importance of reading and analyzing canonical texts to hone skills. But fanfiction allows students to play around with literary tropes, dialogue, plot, and character development—all within the context of their favorite fandom. BB Kim ’22, a TESOL graduate student, would have never guessed that she’d be writing about the Disney film, Frozen, for a fanfiction project in Teaching Reading and Writing to ESOL/Bilingual Students.

As an ESOL instructor herself, Kim saw the potential of fanfiction to engage students in fun, creative ways. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t skeptical at first about the idea of rewriting the plot of an existing movie.

Kim’s realization arrived only after she finished writing her take on Frozen. With a single click, she published her story on a fanfiction website for a real audience to read and leave comments on (imagine if Elsa embraced her powers from the start instead of hiding them away!). Kim wasn’t expecting her work to receive such attention, but seeing it on the website gave her an undeniable sense of accomplishment. 

Kim was especially appreciative of Sauro’s clear and organized instruction, as the students weren’t pushed into the realm of fanfiction without preparation beforehand. “I feel like it was a nice brain break from taking classes that are more theory-based… So it was definitely memorable,” says Kim, adding that Sauro’s teaching style has served as a model for how she conducts her own classes.

Finding yourself in the story

Sauro asks her students to interpret an author’s writing style and incorporate it into their own. Elements like structure and word choice require attention to linguistic detail, making the study of fanfiction quite the endeavor. 

The three-country project, FanTALES, in which Sauro was a contributor, has set out to tackle just this. With the collaboration of researchers and teachers from Sweden, Belgium, and Germany, the project has materialized as an online platform providing learning materials to students and instructors. What sets it apart from traditional language education is its emphasis on storytelling (i.e., fanfiction and interactive fiction), digital literacy, and multilingual avenues of learning and interacting with other language users. Students are given a platform to creatively and critically express their identities and perspectives through writing.

Language teachers and trainers participate in the 2019 FanTALES workshop held in Valencia, Spain, as part of the International Conference on Intercultural Learning in the Digital Age. Photo courtesy of Sauro, right.

“By inviting students to either play with the text, transform it, put themselves in it, or merge it with something they actually like, it gets them more engaged and involved with the text and more likely to commit that time to it,” says Sauro, who incorporates materials from FanTALES into the fanfiction project she assigns to students. Even after the students have written and published their stories, she asks them to reflect on the choices they made throughout the writing process. The bigger takeaways that some students gain reveal the value of personalized storytelling.

“I think for me the takeaway is don’t be afraid to do something different… Don’t be afraid to shy away and be creative and allow students to learn in different ways—to be flexible, to be open-minded,” says Kim.

What Sauro hopes for her students, in addition to increased language skills, is to recognize how they can write themselves into a text to express their truths and experiences. 

“Often when working with language learners, or young people in general with any different background, you can see that there are certain texts that get reified and selected as a canon, but they don’t represent all the lived experiences in society or in the classroom,” says Sauro. “And fanfiction is a way to give students a voice to talk back to that text, to correct that text, and to write themselves into the canon, into the literature, and into the media that their society or their classrooms celebrate and value.”

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Header image: Sauro connects with a student in her office. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.