Dr. David Summers of the English department has recently received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award, which will allow him to travel to Turkey to share his expertise and teach literature courses at Yasar University in Izmir.
The Fulbright Program, which is run through the U.S. State Department, operates in over 160 countries around the world and is designed to give American educators the opportunity to connect with educators and students from these other countries.
The Fulbright award is not discipline-specific, so educators in any field of study are eligible to receive the award.
Educators who receive the award are usually selected based on their level of academic and professional achievement, as well as any contributions they’ve made to their field of study.
Summers began his application process in the summer of 2018 in order to travel in 2020 (if he happened to receive the award), in hopes of traveling to Greece.
He explained that there are several different “rounds” of the application process, including a written application, letters of recommendation, and an invitation from a professional in the respective field of study.
It is a long process, which is why Summers prepared his application well in advance of sending it out for final approval.
“It’s a portfolio of things you end up sending off,” he said. “It’s a lot of time getting this thing ready.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t get approved to travel to Greece for a number of plausible reasons, but he received a call from the woman at Fulbright about three weeks later, who asked him how he’d feel about traveling to Turkey instead.
“I said I’d love to travel to Turkey,” Summers said.
Summers is a great believer in the power and importance of travel, which is what he is most excited about when it comes to being given this opportunity.
He has done a lot of traveling himself already, having previously done several study abroad programs with the university that are designed to get students out into the world.
The longest that he’s been abroad was when he was with a group from Seattle Pacific University and traveled for 10 weeks, getting to visit France, Ireland, and Wales.
This new adventure of teaching abroad in Turkey will be the longest amount of time that he has spent in a non-English speaking country, though.
“I just think [traveling] is one of the most important things that people can do to become globally aware people,” Summers said. “You get out into the world in hopes that you’ll understand and appreciate your own nation better. And it makes you feel like you have a stake in the world as a community, as a kind of global village.”
Summers is also excited to discover what kind of students attend Yasar University, which usually attracts students from all over the Mediterranean. He’s eager to compare their approach to education to that of American students.
“It’s gonna be very different, and I’m looking forward to that.”
