Applying to a Fulbright to figure out post-grad life

Graduating college in 2009, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I wasn’t ready for grad school, had no job interviews lined up, and I wasn’t sure where I would live. Right before graduation, I met Adriana, a chatty Ph.D student who told me I should apply for a Fulbright scholarship. I had heard the term “Fulbright”, but I really had no idea what it was. I wasn’t the award-winning type. I was a first-generation Latinx college student with a moderate GPA. Adriana convinced me that it was an incredible opportunity and that I had a good shot at the award.

After four years of relative independence, I moved into my mom’s two-bedroom apartment with my siblings. With an architecture degree at the height of the economic recession, I couldn’t find a job anywhere. I was crushed; I was a Berkeley grad and couldn’t even get a job at the mall. I felt lost.

Months earlier, the guy I was dating had given me a book when he dumped me. Now I had enough distance to read it. It was a biography of Paul Farmer, a hero in the public health field. I had never studied public health, but reading the book was an inspiration. I started making connections between the living conditions of the world’s urban poor and health outcomes. I was fascinated by the idea that housing and the built environment can impact your health. This sparked my Fulbright research proposal idea.

I started devouring online articles and books on how cities shape our health. For the first time, I looked around at my environment and made connections to my own health. I had never thought about how my asthma might be linked to the low-income, highly polluted community where I grew up. I started to see all around me the negative health effects that low-income communities of color face.

Since I couldn’t find a job, I invented one.

A friend started a news blog about our community called the Wilmington Wire and I joined. I began putting into practice what I was learning in my Fulbright application research by blogging and making YouTube videos. I explored the region's high incidence of asthma, and its relationship to the nearby port and refineries. I was no expert, but doing lots of reading and talking to people. I became the KQED Wilmington community health correspondent for their blog which helped me engage in a broader dialogue about health equity in communities of color.

This was the start of a career focused on health equity.

I met with Adriana throughout the summer. She gave me mini-assignments for gathering my thoughts and breaking down the Fulbright proposal into bite-sized chunks that made it feel achievable. I decided to focus on Brazil for my proposal. I had spent six weeks there the summer prior and loved it. I was interested in the link between the living conditions in the favelas in Rio and people’s health outcomes.

I spent months researching interesting professors and public health organizations online and trying to contact them. I found a public health NGO, CEDAPS, doing community engagement work in the favelas of Rio; they ended up becoming my Fulbright host affiliation. I structured my entire research proposal around working with them as a participant observer to study their methods and bring back what I learned to my own community.

Adriana told me that the process of applying to the Fulbright is rewarding in itself, even if you don’t get the award. I had no idea the effect it would have on me. Writing my proposal gave me clarity on what I wanted to do with my life and set me up on a new career trajectory. During the process, I discovered dual masters programs in city planning and public health that aligned perfectly with my new interests.

I also learned valuable life skills like concise proposal writing and how to do effective cold email outreach. I was more proud of submitting my Fulbright proposal than I was about graduating from college. I had to dig deep to define my interests, find a host affiliation to support me, and craft into two pages a proposal explaining what I would spend nine months doing and why it matters. I felt in my gut that I could show up in Brazil and make my work happen; all I needed from Fulbright was the cash. I was so committed to my proposal that if Fulbright turned me down, I would find money another way and still go to Brazil to do my research.

Facilitating a youth mapping exercise in the community of 29 de Março in Cosmos, Rio de Janeiro.

The next year, I moved to Rio de Janeiro to start my Fulbright research. I had never so much as taken a public health or city planning class and now I was working with a leading public health NGO, CEDAPS, studying both in the field. The staff at CEDAPS was patient with me as I learned Portuguese and gave me incredible insight and access to the public health field in Rio. I was able to apply the community engagement methods I was learning from CEDAPS towards a pilot project partnered with the nonprofit YouthBuild International. I led a group of 34 youth in evaluating the health aspects of their community through hands-on exercises and field work. We did lots of visioning exercises, hand-mapping, and model making for them to envision their future community. Working with youth was not written in my proposal, but this work emerged as I developed relationships and followed my interests.

This time also opened up many opportunities for me. I got to lecture at a university and attend conferences. While in Brazil, I met the Director of the dual MPH/MCP program at Berkeley, who ended up becoming my grad school advisor. I landed a job when I got home with a boss who had done his grad school in Brazil. Seven years later, I married into a Brazilian family.

The mindset I had when applying to the Fulbright has carried me through my career. When I am lost, I start reading about what is interesting to me, I define and craft a project, I reach out to people to partner with me, find funders, write proposals, and I figure it out as I go along.

Have questions? Chat with a Fulbright expert

We host regular free virtual office hours where you can with one of us to have your questions answered. Office hours are great for people who don’t have access to a campus Fulbright Program Adviser.