The Background Story

Never thought I'd find myself here writing a blog post, but here I am! Thanks for coming and being more interested in my life than I probably know. If we haven't exactly met I wanted to give a bit of an introduction of who I am, my background, and just how exactly I managed to secure a Fulbright grant post-college graduation. So here we go!

My name is Michaela Scott, I'm currently 22 years old and originally from just outside of Baltimore, MD. I've lived here my whole life until beginning college at Villanova University and spent those 4 years neighboring Philadelphia, PA. From a young age I've been lucky enough to quite literally travel the world and have such an array of diverse experiences both on a personal and professional level. This only grew at Villanova where doors were opened to incredible opportunities that made me who I am today. I got to lead medical service trips to Panama and Vietnam where we ran free clinics for those who lack proper access. I joined the engineering school for a semester-long program studying and evaluation proper latrine construction in Tanzania, which concluded with a week in-country to see and experience this first hand. And perhaps my most formative experience came Fall 2019 where I spent 4 months in Cape Town, South Africa studying in a program titled "Health, Culture, and Development". I could talk forever about these experiences and the many other, and definitely will if you ask me, but they all led me to a deep passion for traveling, learning, and simply living.

So fast forward to my senior year of college in 2021, I found myself graduating Cum Laude from Villanova University with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Global Health, French, and Africana Studies. Through the years I've honed in on a passion for pursing global health. And yes, that's a massive field, but that's kinda why I love it. Creating equitable and sustainable public health is a global mission in itself - no one is exempt and no one is more deserving than another. I know I have a long way to go, seeing my career literally hasn't even begun yet, but I'm feeling more passionate and energized than ever.

And with all of that, I still wasn't sure what I wanted my life to look like post-graduation. I blindly applied for some random non-profit positions without much research or connections, and even sent an application to my study abroad organization hoping to live vicariously through some prospective study abroad students. I knew my ultimate goal was to pursue a Master of Public Health, but also knew some years of experience would probably do me some good on a personal and professional level. So I ended up putting most of my focus on different fellowship opportunities I came across and crossing my fingers I could escape the real world office jobs for another year.

I successfully applied for the Global Health Corps, TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France), and of course Fulbright. GHC ultimately decided to not run the program due to COVID concerns, which was entirely understandable given the fellowship took place in some of the more vulnerable countries at the time like Rwanda and Ethiopia where I applied. This would have been an incredible opportunity working for local NGOs and non-profits committed to domestic violence prevention, young women empowerment, or HIV/AIDS initiatives to name a few. TAPIF was also an exciting opportunity which was essentially the French equivalent to the Fulbright ETA program, and felt this to be more of a realistic option because Fulbright was so prestigious to me. I was lucky enough to actually be selected for TAPIF and even got placement details in the beautiful coastal city of Nice, France teaching English at a lycée - French high-school. This would have been an EASY yes if it hadn't come a couple weeks after Fulbright, of course.

But Fulbright was the biggest surprise of it all. I knew of the program only from Villanova sponsored presentations telling anyone and everyone to apply because of the incredible experience and diverse group of people that succeed. I think there was a bit of fate involved to ultimately get me to apply - for no reason other than I'd love to live outside of the U.S. for a bit, and under the name of "Fulbright"...like...no brainer. So without thinking too much about it I began my application (linked below) in March to be a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) in the Czech Republic. I know Villanova had a good relationship with the Czech commission and generally liked who Villanova produced, and given the fact that my mom's side of the family has Czech heritage, I thought my application would have a tiny bit of hope. On the other hand, I had no official teaching experience and not that much interest in literature or English, so I really thought there was no chance for me. I chose to focus my application on my minimal tutoring work and service-learning experiences that were much more formative to me on a personal level. I officially submitted my application in August after months of working on it with the Villanova Center for Fellowships and patiently waited for the next round of notifications. A short 6 months later I received a status update: Semi-Finalist. What. No way. There's literally no way, right. Well, somehow I managed to pull that off and genuinely confused as to why me. To be named a Semi-Finalist is essentially an award in itself, and I was so very content keeping that title. But then April came and I literally couldn't believe my eyes. In a split second, a brief email, my life changed as I realized I'd be moving to the Czech Republic for 10 months and officially became a Fulbright Scholar.

There's so much more to this story of course, but the overwhelming feelings on my end were a bit of genuine confusion haha, but very very humbled. This is an incredible opportunity and despite all the nerves and apprehensions I'll definitely be venting about, I feel the privilege and honor I have in this. It's overwhelming to say the least, but excited to share it with people and get it all written down to remember it one day.

Thanks for being here with me - here we go!

Michaela

**For anyone curious as to what my application looked like, and how Villanova helped tailor it so well, here's my Personal Statement and SOGP:

Fulbright Application.pdf

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