Preparing to apply for the Fulbright Research Scholarship

Preparing to apply for the Fulbright Research Scholarship

I was part of the many scholars in Togo who are not amply informed about the Fulbright Research Scholarship. This is probably due to the fact that we are a small African French speaking country. It is true that Togolese know about the Fulbright grant to do a Master or a Ph.D. in an American Institutions but many don’t know about the Fulbright research program.

I had the privilege to hear about the Fulbright Research Scholarship from one of my colleague from Togo Dr. Komlan M. Avono who was a Fulbright Research in Nebraska (2012-2013). I heard it because I helped him fill in the forms for his application. I think he asked me to help because I had taken part in the Study of United State Institute (SUSI 2010) in New York. It was an exchange program that gathered 18 people coming from different countries outside the U.S to learn about the American Culture and Society. He was Texas State University San Marcos in 2013 for Outreach Lecture as part of his Fulbright experience where he met a Professor of American Literature and asked him to write a recommendation letter in support of my application.

Many people don’t apply because not only they are not informed about the program but because the paperwork for the application as well as the process is challenging and too long. A detailed project in needs to be written in English. This is difficult because Togo is a French speaking country. Another challenge before the application is to have an invitation letter from a host institution in the U.S. It is difficult to get a professor in your field of study who has the support of the administration of the institution. Another challenge is the long time it takes before you get the feedback from your application. I my case, it took more than one year after my application before I was informed about the result. This is due to the fact that there is a selection at the national level before the final selection in the U.S. So you are stuck in your projects within this period of expectation of results.

But when you get a positive result, you forget about all the time you have been expecting the results and all the challenges you have gone through.