Fulbright Fun

As a part of the Global Leadership Scholars Program, I spent the past six weeks interning for the US-UK Fulbright Commission. I was a real workin' woman. The Fulbright Commission is a government appointed commission responsible for every single Fulbright Award that is given to any UK or US student. A Fulbright Award is a very prestigious scholarship that is given to postgraduates to work on their masters degrees overseas (Postgrad Awards) or to professors to lecture (Scholar Awards). A Fulbright Scholarship is the equivalent of a Rhodes Scholarship: very prestigious and VERY competitive. You get a Fulbright as a Postgrad and you can get into almost any grad school that you want. Being a Fulbrighter opens a lot of doors, and working with them this semester has opened a door for me because of how much I have learned. My time at the Fulbright Commission was memorable to say the least.

We worked in an office directly next to the Battersea Power Station, which is an out-of-use station that used to control all of the electricity for the city of London. The Power Station is now under construction to become an event hall and office space...but right now it is just lots of dump trucks and dust in the middle of nowhere. It is a beautiful location right on the Thames, but it is definitely in a developing part of the city. I have to take the tube about 30 minutes and then walk another 30 or so to get to the office because the tube doesn't go out that far. The walk wouldn't seem so long if there weren't construction workers lining the streets ready to whistle at a moment's notice. However, I felt so cool every day hopping on the tube, waking with a purpose, and not feeling like a tourist. I would scoff at the people that didn't know obvious things like don't stand on the left on the escalators, or my special favorite, the people that would take pictures of the tube...it's not that picturesque I promise. Unfortunately it was probably one of those "what you think you look like, what you actually look like" moments for me...

What I think I look like...

What I actually look like...

Work was a dream for me. Maybe it was the academic atmosphere that I enjoyed, or maybe it was that I am destined to work in a not-for-profit and be broke my whole life, but whatever it was the Fulbright Commission was exactly where I wanted to be. Apart from the actual commissioners, there are 6 full time staff members and anywhere from 1-3 interns at a time. This makes for a very intimate work environment and allowed me to take on projects that in a larger environment I wouldn't have touched. My coworkers were as follows:

-Michael (The Boss) is the flamboyant neat freak who speaks with a British accent even though he is from Chicago.
-Lauren (Go-To Girl) is the American recent graduate who is quick witted, has a story for everything, and orchestrates 4 o'clock dance parties to "I Like Big Butts."
-Monique (Don't Mess With Me) is the too-cool-for-school South African whose desk is a black hole but she manages to be on top of every little thing that goes on.
-Rebecca (Real Life Brit) is the young, sweet, recently married, only actual Brit in the office who is kind no matter how annoying the scholar on the other end of the phone conversation is.
-Moray (Office Manager)...we don't really know what she does.

Needless to say, it was a diverse and upbeat work environment.

Quite an intimidating building to see out the window at work...

I spent a lot of my time doing administrative tasks to help keep the office running, but most of the time I had the chance to be a part of some really interesting and "inside" jobs for the commission. I got to do some work on their website, and for any college students or teachers out there here is my shameless plug for a great opportunity: www.fulbright.co.uk check it out! I had the chance to work with the applications that were coming in for their summer programmes, which are for rising sophomores and juniors in college and are VERY competitive. We received over 800 applications for about 40 spots for the three-week exchange programmes. I got to attend a commission event where I met current and past Fulbrighters who are all very impressive people with impressive stories to tell. I had the chance to design, edit, and write flyers, acceptance letters, and other informative documents that will be going out all over the world. I truly got a taste of what the Fulbright Commission is all about.

More than anything, I had a blast and learned valuable lessons that will help me along the road. (Mostly what NOT to do in an interview or application, but useful nonetheless.) The best part of the job was that when opening up the applications that were mailed in, the rule was: you keep any treasures you find. I accumulated some jewels of photographs people sent of themselves, candy, and even a CD of a girl playing a harp. Sometimes when reading the applications got too stressful you would here one of the girls moan, "harpppp" with her head down on a growing pile of papers, and we knew it was time to take a break and listen to our new favorite CD to relax.

There are so many things that I will miss about my time with Fulbright. For example, the family lunches when the whole staff would gather and have "sanctity" time when no one was allowed to talk about work. Or the girls calling me "Queen Intern" and giving me life advice; their favorite was "take the money and drink your life away" when it came to choosing a career, but you could tell that they love what they do. But my favorite part of the day was the exchange with Michael (The Boss) when he would pop his head into my office out of the blue and yell:

"LAURA!" (prounounced "La-ra"...he was very proud that he could say it right instead of the common "Lo-ra")

"Yes, Michael?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to say your name. You're a star. I'm giving you a raise!"

"Thanks!"

"Yes. Your salary just went from nothing to nothing. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No thank you, I'm good."

"Oh good. I'll bring you one." 

Tea. So much tea. Always.
Fulbright really was my cup of tea!