In this video, ex-Fulbright Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA), Brian Garvey, offers advice for ETA applications, specifically focusing on the personal essay. As mentioned in the video, here is Brian's personal essay that actually got him the Fulbright scholarship (keep in mind YouTube's comment area doesn't maintain paragraph structure like Word; that is the reason for the poor font and lack of indentation):
At the age of nine, I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease known as Keratoconus. Although currently corrected, at that time, the blurred vision meant my childhood dream to become a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees was over. I had to abandon my childhood dream and prepare myself for the possibility of someday being blind. It was scary, and, in blatant terms, the commencement of my language-learning passion. I was forced to specialize in something that could be done without eyesight, and language was my choice. The diagnosis took place at the exact moment in middle school when I had to choose between French and Spanish. The timing of the two was simply amazing. I felt, in a time of great fear and uncertainty, empowered through a discipline that could be a proprietor of success in my then ever-so-possible future as a blind man. My choice of Spanish stayed with me through middle school, high school, and is with me now as a senior in college. In high school, I studied Spanish and Latin simultaneously and attempted French and Ancient Greek on my own time. In college, the decision and fluency in Spanish at the time sent me to Salamanca, Spain where I took classes with foreigners and Spanish natives. Upon arriving back to the United States and Castleton State College (CSC) in Vermont, I was asked to coordinate the Study Abroad Program; it was an offer that I never expected to receive. The new responsibility helped me discover a new passion in my life: to encourage others to study abroad.
Working as the Study Abroad Coordinator (SAC) has allowed me to enter numerous classrooms campus-wide and give presentations to freshmen students about the study abroad process and its possibilities. Although what I have been learning and doing hasn’t been playing for the Yankees, I have been developing a passion that has opened unexpected doors and inevitably led me to helping others study abroad. In addition to my position as the SAC, I have been working on a teaching portfolio and student teaching in a local high school on Mondays and Wednesdays. The experience has been an eye-opener and a challenge simultaneously. With the help of a mentor teacher, I have learned a lot about teaching students with individual needs and how to specifically utilize language instruction theory like Total Physical Response. In the classroom I combine my language-learning passion and cultural immersion enthusiasm to convey the importance and practicality of knowing a non-native language.
By applying, I hope to be granted the opportunity to continue encouraging other students and share my success to inspire Colombian students to learn English. I strive to learn new teaching methodologies that I can use in the United States when I start my career as a Spanish teacher. Furthermore, I hope to be able to build on my experience in Buenos Aires by utilizing my extroverted and empathetic personality to volunteer in an orphanage-like home for children who require parental models and special attention. In the event that such a venue is unavailable at my placement, I will push to use my special education training to interact with neurodiverse children at a local school and spend extra time with those that the school deems in need of such one-on-one tutoring. Lastly, I hope to be able to create a fresh idea in the minds of foreign students about the United States‘ foreign affairs mission. As a teacher in the Fulbright program I will be a representative of the United States and its people; therefore, I will act according to the mission of the program and adhere to its guidelines in a professional manner. My overall hope is to learn a new culture, teach language and culture, volunteer with children, and gain a new dimension of experience as a foreign language teacher.
Personal Statement
Brian, Colombia, English Teaching Assistantship
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