March 2019
Dear Fulbrighters,
Greetings and welcome! We are excited to gather together in Taiwan for this Fulbright enrichment workshop “Fulbright in East Asia and the Pacific.” The U.S. Department of State is proud to sponsor the worldwide Fulbright program, which totals more than 7,000 participants annually in more than 160 countries. In the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region, each year we have more than 1,500 Fulbrighters either traveling to the United States from EAP or spending their Fulbright in an EAP country.
While I say “Fulbright”, as you know, there are many different categories within that broad name, mainly the U.S. Student, Foreign Student, U.S. Scholar, and Visiting Scholar programs. Within the U.S. Student category, the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) program is the largest. This important component of the Fulbright program is relatively new, dynamic and growing worldwide. For these reasons, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is hosting this workshop for select ETAs, Students, and Scholars from across the region. In EAP there are more than 400 ETAs, teaching English in Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and for the first time this year, Timor-Leste. For this workshop, close to 150 ETAs will also be joined by nearly 40 Students and Scholars from several of the countries listed above as well as Australia, Burma, Cambodia, China, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Singapore.
Given the range of countries represented, we view this workshop as a unique opportunity. This will be a chance to share experiences of working, conducting research, teaching and living in different countries across a vast and wildly differing region. We hope that this will be an opportunity to:
- dive into some of the shared challenges (and joys!) of being an American living in EAP
- gain insights and new ideas on teaching English
- learn of cutting edge research being conducted by Fulbright Students and Scholars
- explore professional development opportunities and career paths
- meet as many Fulbrighters as possible
- provide valuable feedback on how to strengthen the Fulbright Program going forward
- experience and learn about Taiwan
This workshop would not be possible without the tireless efforts of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (FSE), the Fulbright Commission in Taiwan. They work in close partnership with the State Department, including the American Institute in Taiwan and ECA in Washington. Be sure to thank FSE staff for their hard work on putting the program and all of the logistics together!
This is the first workshop that brings together U.S. Fulbrighters from all EAP countries and we are counting on you to be engaged participants and contributors throughout the coming days. The Fulbright network is strong, and we anticipate its strength will be on full display in Taiwan!
Warm regards,
Adam Meier
Fulbright EAP Branch Chief
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs