热点大瓜

The most stressful thing was just starting the essays to begin with and also deciding which draft was done. I would say that by the time I was writing my third, fourth, fifth, etc. drafts, I was comfortable because I knew that this is what I'm submitting. I would recommend starting early. I started writing my essays as soon as the application opened in April, because it allows you to think through your whole time in undergrad, and even before then, a little bit more. You have more time to have other people read it and the longer you are working on something, the more eyes you can have on it. It made me feel more comfortable with the content that I had.

Andorra's requirements list both French and Spanish, or Catalan. However, in my experience being able to speak French will not help you at all, so you have to be able to speak Spanish or Catalan. If you want to make friends in the country outside of school, you have to speak Spanish, not Catalan. All of your coworkers and all of the students do need to study Catalan, so it’s not as big of a deal in a school setting. The Spanish spoken in Andorra is mostly South American Spanish because most of the serving class, the people who work in Andorra are immigrants from South America, and are there to serve the rich . That's who most of my friends ended up being. 

Overall, Andorra is a good option, but I think that also people should apply for the country that they're most interested in. I think a lot of people apply for Andorra because they're interested in applying to Spain, but then they see the acceptance rates and compare it to Andorra's. And Andorra is comparably an easier country to get accepted to versus Spain, which is one of the most competitive Fulbright programs, but I think students shouldn't apply to Andorra just because they want to go to Spain, because it's a very different country, it's a very different place, and it's a very different system. You're much more isolated in Andorra than you are if you are staying in almost anywhere in Spain. Also, Spanish classes aren’t offered anywhere in Andorra, partly because they want immigrants who move to the country not to learn Spanish, but Catalan instead. If you want to go to Spain, apply to Spain, and if you don't get to Spain through Fulbright, you can apply to the NALCAP (North American Language and Culture Assistants Program), which is, like, the Spanish government version of Fulbright.

I was uncertain if I wanted to dig deeper into research in the areas of teaching and multilingualism. After my experience in Andorra, I decided that I really did not love teaching, and I found that I was missing other things I had gotten involved in as an undergraduate. So, Fulbright was almost like a process of elimination more than finding the thing I was truly passionate about. Fulbright helped me see what I valued and what I was truly interested in in life.

Right now, I'm pursuing a Master of Educational Studies with concentrations in Higher Education Administration and Data Analysis. I like the idea of working in education forever, but in the event that I needed to pivot, it's also nice to have experience within a niche that can also be applied to industry, like data analysis.

I was pretty heavily involved in a few student organizations, and I just loved organizing things and bringing groups of people together. Teaching and research can be very solitary as a career. I don't think that there's as much day-to-day interaction as there are in other careers, and that was something that I missed. Obviously, you're interacting with students all day, but it's not as collaborative as other areas that I had enjoyed. 

I was also very involved in the admissions office at the University at Buffalo. I was a tour guide and then a student assistant and I really enjoyed that work, and especially how systematic a lot of it was. I just love processes and things like that. I think that Fulbright helped me realize that I wasn't going to find that in teaching. I also really like to be finished with a project at the end of the day, and with research, I always felt something looming over me. I found that I enjoyed going home at the end of the day and having nothing else to think about or worry about. Also, when a project is done, it's done, which is not what I experienced when doing research in undergrad. It just felt like there was always a next step.

Originally, I wanted to go into higher education administration, because I like working in education, having connections with students and supporting them in that way. But I knew I didn't want to teach, or do research, and so administration made a lot of sense, especially because of what I enjoyed in my undergraduate career. I was originally interested in international admissions and international services. 

Now, I've pivoted a little bit, and I'd like to work more on the institutional research and analysis end of education administration. I want to make our universities more efficient and effective and better for the students who are attending them. Because that's still, like, at the center, you know? It's one of the reasons I was tutoring refugees; it’s one of the reasons I taught the honors colloquium course. It's one of the reasons I ran Spanish Conversation Table. I like teaching and having people get informative experiences and now I'm just doing it a different way and getting paid for it.