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English in western Germany. By the end of the year, he’d progressed from barely conversational to fully fluent German. “Te ability to be immersed in the


culture at that level is something I’d never have been able to afford without the Fulbright,” says Fischer, 27, who has been teaching English at a Bakersfield, Calif., high school since August.


she was in England and married him that spring, with her British dorm mates planning much of the wedding. Travel has been a life-enhancing


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experience York has enjoyed for decades. In fact, she departed for a three-week trip to the Middle East, Athens and London the day aſter this interview. And Fischer, who is hooked on the


German culture as well as the Alps, expects to return to Germany every chance he gets. “Travel changes you and makes you a


more reflective, knowledgeable person,” he says. “Tere are so many things I think about and connect to. It gave me a totally different outlook.” He retains some European customs


even now in California: He has no TV, walks wherever he can, and buys small quantities of high-quality food instead of one large weekly haul. At the same time, travel has made him


grateful for certain things in the United States. “We have much more space and it’s


much cheaper to live here than in Europe,” he says. “We have a lot more amenities than a lot of people anywhere in Europe have, and that makes me very grateful.” Fischer gives lots of credit to Carla


Damiano, professor of German, for suggesting he apply for the scholarship and helping him rewrite his application 17 times.


26 Eastern | WINTER 2011


oth York and Fischer made lasting friendships during their years in Europe. In fact, York met another American Fulbright scholar while


“Jason seemed like the ideal candidate,


because Fulbright is really about being an ambassador for the United States,” says Damiano, who praises Fischer’s positive outlook, enthusiasm for life and well- rounded credentials. Damiano has been a Fulbright scholar


in Germany twice—once as a teaching assistant and later as a researcher. “It puts you in an elite group, and


launches you to the next level in your career,” says Damiano, now EMU’s Fulbright advisor. Fischer graduated from Eastern in


six years, with 183 credits and a double major in English and history, with teaching certifications for both. “I could have goten out in four years,


“The ability to be immersed in the


culture at that level is something I’d never have been able to afford without the Fulbright.”


but I just kept taking classes,” he says. During his six years at EMU,


professors from several disciplines went out of their way to help him prepare for a solid future, he says. “I could go on for a very long time


about how great Eastern is, and all the opportunities I got there,” he says. It didn’t hurt that his Fulbright


experience—which included teaching in a foreign country and leading student groups on field trips in Poland and Germany—looked great on his resume. “Te ability to travel and see the


world, to make new friends and gain their perspectives and give your perspectives, to show people what Americans really


are, and to learn what French and German people really are is a fantastic giſt,” he says. “Not a lot of people get to experience that, because you have to spend some serious time living away from home, learning things and finding all the perks and the idiosyncrasies that exist in other countries. You don’t get that from a week’s guided tour or a backpacking trip through Europe.” York, who agrees that her Fulbright


experience opened many doors, spent most of her career working in organizational development and fundraising as well as Democratic politics in southern California. Today, 12 years aſter retiring, she lives in Seatle, spending her time taking classes and traveling. She also volunteers with the Fulbright


program in order to help students enjoy the opportunity she had. “I’ve had an interesting life for a poor girl from Detroit,” she says.


Straits. Tat’s where she met a crew member who spoke English partly because his father had been a Fulbright scholar in Indiana. “Everywhere I go, I meet someone


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who has been connected to the program,” she says. “I really feel now whenever I travel, I need to represent and need to make good relations.” Fischer feels just as strongly about the


Fulbright Scholarship program. “It’s really a great honor to do the


program and be able to touch lives you would never be able to touch, and come back to America with new skills and new perspectives,” he says. “Tat’s what it’s about. We need to show other countries who we are as individuals—not as governments, not as corporations, but as real people.” 3


ork was in Chile last year during an earthquake and couldn’t get on a plane, so she signed up for a cruise through the Magellan


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