Call for Nominations: Amerigo Media Award 2022

Liebe Fullies,

der Fulbright Alumni e.V. hat als Teil von ENAM (European Network of American Alumni Associations) dieses Jahr die Ehre, den/die Gewinner:in des europäischen Amerigo Media Awards zu bestimmen. Der Award wird jedes Jahr durch die italienisch-amerikanischen Alumni an eine:n Journalist:in in Europa vergeben, der/die durch herausragende journalistische und/oder mediale Arbeit zu positiven Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland, Europa und den USA beiträgt.

Für die Nominierung geeigneter Kandidat:innen benötigen wir eure Unterstützung!

Sind euch Fulbright Alumni bekannt, die aktuell in Deutschland leben und durch besondere journalistische/mediale Arbeit die transatlantischen Beziehungen fördern? Oder seid ihr vielleicht sogar selbst aktiv?

Wir freuen uns über eure Vorschläge per E-Mail an outreach@fulbright-alumni.de bis spätestens 15. September 2022. Bitte nennt uns Vorname, Nachname, Kontaktinfos (falls vorhanden) und eine kurze Begründung, warum diese Person (oder ihr selbst) aus eurer Sicht den Award gewinnen sollte.

Der/die ausgewählte Gewinner:in darf sich auf eine exklusive Vergabe des Awards im Dezember vor Ort in Florenz freuen – die Reisekosten werden übernommen.

Als kleinen Teaser findet ihr hier einen Bericht zur Award-Vergabe aus einem der vorherigen Jahre. Meldet euch ansonsten bei Fragen gerne direkt unter oben genannter E-Mail.

Vielen Dank für eure Unterstützung!

Fulbright Scholarship: Make it your way! – Webinar am 28. Juli 2022 von 18.30 – 19.15 

“Das ist nur etwas für Einser Kandidat:innen”
“Für ein Stipendium bist du nicht gut genug”

Leider mussten viele Studierende oder Schüler oft diesen Satz von Lehrer:innen oder Professor:innen hören. In vielen Fällen hat dies junge ambitionierte Menschen oft im weiteren Leben davon abgehalten sich für Stipendien zu bewerben. Wir wollen das ändern und junge Menschen mit guten Leistungen und sozialem Engagement dazu aufrufen sich für das Fulbright Stipendium zu bewerben.

Fulbright ermöglicht es jungen Menschen in den USA zu leben und an einer amerikanischen Universität zu studieren. Das Stipendium ermöglicht Studierenden einen einmaligen spannenden, lehrreichen und unvergesslichen kulturellen Austausch.

Als Alumni von verschiedenen Programmen der Fulbright Kommission erzählen wir dir wie unsere Erfahrung war und was du bei deiner Bewerbung beachten solltest.

Bewerben oder nicht bewerben? Wir sagen: Auf alle Fälle bewerben!

Registriert euch gerne hier:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_S7N2cTYWQzCRAtDh-M_pzA

Wir freuen uns auf euch!

FRANKly: Call for Articles

Calling all writers!

Our FRANKly magazine is calling for articles for our 2022  edition, with the theme of, “Pursuing Our Social Conscience“. Everyone is  encouraged to submit under the guidelines in the call to action attached here as a PDF.

Please share our call far & wide.

To look at our 2021 magazine, just click here:
https://fulbright-alumni.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Frankly-32_2021.pdf

The deadline for submissions is August 31, 2022. Please send all questions,  ideas, and contributions to Jana Frey via email at editor.frankly@fulbright-alumni.de.

Pursuing Our Social Conscience

Injustices and inequalities have always existed in the societies we have created. The truth of this has again become apparent this year and forces us to listen closely to our social conscience, our sense of responsibility to engage with not only our own issues, but also those beyond us.

The war in Ukraine has brought this necessity particularly close for a lot of people. But of course, continuous threats to an equal, just and safe society for everyone should not be forgotten and remind us of the importance to take a stand, to raise our voices, to act with compassion and to contribute to making a change. Instead of focusing on the differences that separate us, we need to find the commonalities that connect us.

The FRANKly 2022 wishes to explore the different ways and arenas in which our social conscience can or should manifest. This issue welcomes contributions that rise to the occasion and accept civic responsibility. In which ways can we as people in general and as Fulbrighters in particular give back – and to whom? What injustices need to be tackled and what forms of protest can we chose to fight them? Can we take inspiration from the way people have followed their social conscience in the past, and how can we make use of this in the future? How can we empower others and support each other in order to have an impact beyond ourselves?

Download Call for Articles 2022

Dr. John Ashley Null wins Mulert Award 2022 with “Emotional Wellness training program” from Berlin

The Emotional Wellness training program for Hertha Berlin’s U17 team is based on helping the young men build healthy relationships through developing the key skills of mutual understanding. In the process, the youth players are not only learning how to bring out the best in themselves but also how to affirm and encourage the best in those around them, including their families, their teammates, and those who have traditionally been on the margins of our society.
Dr. John Ashley Null giving a presentation of the Emotional Wellness training program at the German Fulbright Alumni e.V. Mulert Award Ceremony 21.05.2022 in Cologne/Germany

The Tokyo Olympics will long be remembered as a turning point in elite sport where the mental health of athletes became an essential concern for all. Hertha Berlin takes seriously its duty of care to promote the emotional well-being of the participants in its Youth Academy. To that end, for the 2021-2022 football season the Club engaged Arne Friedrich, then a Hertha Executive Board member, whose areas of responsibility included the Youth Academy, Dr. Ben Houltberg, an internationally respected youth developmental psychologist, and Dr. John Ashley Null, a Fulbright Alumnus and deeply experienced pastoral counselor to elite athletes, to design a pilot program to promote emotional wellness in Hertha’s Under 17 youth team.

The project was founded on the principle that a person is not defined by their accomplishments, but by their relationships. However, relationships are what make accomplishments possible. After all, the first thing Olympic Gold Medalists do when they realize they have won is instinctively look to the stands to make eye contact with someone they love. Because no matter how wonderful the thrill of victory is at the very special moment, if there is no one with whom to share the joy, even a victory as great as that is empty. And, of course, it was the on-going love of those very people that provided the gold medalists the “emotional shock absorbers” they needed to keep going, despite all the disappointments and multiple setbacks the come with elite sport, until they had achieved their goal of the gold. In short, emotional wellness gives people the resilience they need to keep striving for a better future, and emotional wellness is the product of healthy relationships. Therefore, the Hertha pilot program concentrated on giving the twenty-four fifteen- and sixteen-year-old young men of its Under 17 team the tools they needed to build healthy relationships. And what is the foundation of healthy relationships?

Mutual understanding. The program identified seven key skills necessary for mutual understanding: respect, empathy, trust, togetherness, forgiveness, gratitude, and resilience. One relational skill was featured each month. The U17 team met for emotional wellness training three times a month in ninety-minute sessions. Since youths learn best through role models, activities, and conscious integration, the first monthly meeting featured an interview with a member of the current pro team or staff about how the relational skill of the month helps the pro on and off the field.

For respect, Dedryck Boyata, the current pro team captain, spoke about the importance of taking time to invest in other people, since it was the support which his family gave him that got him through a very difficult rehabilitation process after a serious injury at the start of his career. Other speakers include Fredi Bobic, Hertha Managing Director; Arne Friedrich, Hertha Sporting Director and former pro team captain; and Maxi Mittelstädt, current member of the Hertha pro team and alumnus of the Hertha Youth Academy. The second monthly meeting consisted of a physical activity which reinforced the featured skill, broadened the youth players’ understanding, and acted as a service project to the wider community.
For empathy, the young men interacted with mentally and physically handicapped people at their work place. On the one hand, the youth players learned that making a cheese board for which someone would pay money served a similar function in the lives of the handicapped as scoring a goal did for them. Despite the significant differences between the two groups, they all shared a basic human need to be productive and appreciated. This awareness broadened the young footballers understanding of handicapped people and of themselves. On the other hand, for the handicapped, elite sportspeople coming to their work place to learn from them reinforced that they had something significant to offer others, which increased the handicapped participants’ own sense of accomplishment and being appreciated.
Other service projects included playing blind football with members of Hertha’s blind football team (trust), inviting their parents to a December party where they told them all things they were grateful that their parents did for them (gratitude) and learning from a former homeless teenager at the Mission to Bahnhof Zoo about how depression led him to the streets where shame and fear plagued him–the three very issues with which elite athletes have to struggle–and how he overcame them (resilience).

A very special highlight of the year was listening to Margot Friedländer speak about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor, including how she learned to forgive.

Hertha BSC U17 trifft Holocaustüberlebende Margot Friedlander am 20.04.2022 in Berlin, Deutschland. (Foto von Moritz Eden/City-Press GmbH)
Hertha BSC U17 trifft Holocaustüberlebende Margot Friedlander am 20.04.2022 in Berlin, Deutschland. (Foto von Moritz Eden/City-Press GmbH)

The focus of the third monthly meeting was reflection and integration. The youth players were each given a personal notebook. In the final meeting of the month, the young men recorded what they have learned about the featured relational skill. They are then encouraged to write down how that skill could help their relationship with themselves, with their family and friends, with their football performance, with their teammates and coaches, and with others in school and the community.

Finally, they are asked to write down one action item where they commit to growing better at the relational skill in a specific context. In their written comments, many remarked, for example, how they had learned for the first time that they should express respect and empathy for those different from themselves, rather than pity. Some committed themselves to working on remaining positive when their teammates make mistakes in a match, since they knew how that felt. Several others recognized how they have failed to have empathy for their parents and have pledged to try harder at understanding and respecting them. Not surprisingly, then, those not directly associated with the Emotional Wellness project, like their coaches, commented that they could see a real difference in how the participants acted towards others.

In the light of the positive evaluations, Hertha plans to continue the program in its Youth Academy for the 2022-2023 football season.

Vera Kostiuk Busch wins the Special Prize of the Mulert Award 2022 with the “Mother Tongue – Ukrainian” project from Ratingen

The idea of the project “Mother Tongue – Ukrainian” is to help Ukrainian children not to forget their native language and culture. They suffer immensely due to the Russian invasion of their country. At Ukrainian Sunday School they have a central place to interact with others that have experienced a similar, traumatic situation.

Vera Kostiuk Busch giving a presentation of the project “Mother Tongue – Ukrainian” at the German Fulbright Alumni e.V. Mulert Award Ceremony 21.05.2022 in Cologne/Germany

The German school system will absorb Ukrainian refugee children into existing classes and they will learn the German language. Pro Ukraine e.V. wants to ensure that Ukrainian language, culture and history is preserved so the children do not loose their mother tongue. It is important for them to feel understood and comfortable in a familiar community.
On a psychological level, the Mother Tongue School will be a hub for young people to interact with others who have experiencedsimilar trauma.
Lastly, some adult refugees are teachers, who can become valuable members of both the fleeing Ukrainian community as well as the welcoming German community by teaching at the Ukrainian Sunday School.

Registration now open for 2022 General Assembly in Cologne!

Dear FAeV members and friends,

We are happy to announce that registration has now begun for this year’s 2022 General Assembly, which will take place on Saturday, May 21st, 2022 and which offers an accompanying programm over the span of the weekend.

Some of the planned events need to be paid in advance and have limited capacity. For the General Assembly, we ask that you also register so that we can accurately plan the catered lunch and coffee.

Click here register and to read more details about the 2022 General Assembly and events.

Apply now for the Mulert Award 2022!

Mulert Award

Applications for the 2022 Mulert Award are open. Please apply here by May 7th, 2022 via a quick and short online form and reach out to us in case of any questions. You can find out more about former Mulert Award laureates and their projects at the bottom of this page.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Call for Action: Fulbright Futures Video Project

call for action

Dear Alumni,

Fulbright Germany turns 70! That makes us very happy and we want to share our joy with you and the world. Besides an array of events throughout the year, there will be an anniversary website and much more. One of the ideas we have won’t be possible without your help. For the anniversary video project Fulbright Futures we want to collect 70 videos with your stories!

Please participate and send us your personal “why Fulbright was important to you” video!

70 years of student exchange between Germany and the US, 70 years full of exciting stories and encounters. The experiences were all individual and yet they have one thing in common: Getting to know another culture has touched everyone in one way or another.

We want to collect these individual experiences for our Fulbright Futures anniversary video project.

Would you like to join us and tell us what the Fulbright exchange meant to you?

What was the most exciting moment of your exchange?

How did the experience influence your life or career?

It would be amazing if you could send us a short (no longer than one minute) video of yourself that we can share on our anniversary website and on social media. You can find the content and technical suggestions, as well as a media-release on the internal documents page of our members section (log in required).

Please send your video with the signed media-release form to alumni@fulbright.de(it can also be a link to the video on a cloud storage etc.)

Thinking outside the box, being open to new experiences, learning another language, developing academically is what Fulbright is all about – now as much as 70 years ago. Let your stories inspire others to take that step into the world. We’d love for you to take part!

Everyone is busy and very preoccupied with the challenges and crises at the moment. Nevertheless, we would value your support of this project since now more than ever it is crucial to reaffirm the power of international understanding.

Thank you so very much and best regards from the Fulbright Community

Fulbright Alumni e. V.
German-American Fulbright Commission
Association of Friends and Sponsors of the German-American Fulbright Program e.V. (VFF)

Unterstützung für die Menschen der Ukraine

Liebe Alumni,

mit Fassungslosigkeit müssen wir zusehen, wie der Angriff auf die Ukraine den Krieg zurück nach Europa bringt. Wir als Fulbrighter, die für Frieden und Völkerverständnis stehen, wollen gemeinsam denjenigen Menschen helfen, die durch den Krieg betroffen sind.

Um durch regionale Unterstützung oder Spenden helfen zu können, haben wir ein Dokument aufgesetzt, in welches wir alle bisherigen Informationen, die uns erreicht haben, zusammengefasst haben. Dieses findet ihr hier:

Fulbright Community Helps Ukraine – Links and Local Information

Wir als Fulbright Gemeinschaft können viel bewegen und die Ukraine und alle angrenzenden, betroffenen, Länder unterstützen! Bitte engagiert euch – egal in welcher Form.

Schreibt uns bitte! Damit wir es zentral sammeln und verteilen können, nutzt bitte die neu eingerichtete E-Mail Adresse: helpukraine@fulbtight-alumni.de.

Wenn ihr also von weiteren Initiativen, Gruppen o.ä. hört, die die Ukrainer: innen unterstützen oder nützlichen Links und wichtige Informationen habt, dann schickt sie uns, sodass wir gemeinsame Hilfe koordinieren können.

Danke an alle, die im Großen und im Kleinen in dieser schwierigen Zeit die Ukraine unterstützen.

Euer Vorstand

Andi, Johannes, Sarah, Alex & Michael

32nd FRANKly issue now available in digital format!

We are happy to present to you during this winter break, this year’s FRANKly! We hope you can take some time off during the next few days to spend with your loved ones, to relax – and to perhaps sit down with some Glühwein or Eggnog and the digital FRANKLy to read about this past year in the life of the FAeV and about our authors’ „Daring (New) Beginnings“!

We hope that the printed version of the magazine will be in your hands – true to the main theme – at the beginning of the new year.

In good old German tradition, the FAeV wishes a happy second day of Christmas and a guten Rutsch!

 

To view the latest issue of the FRANKly, have a look here!

No Mulert Award in 2021

Due to the ongoing pandemic the yearly Winter Ball, which acts as the Award Ceremony, had been postponed several times and finally cancelled. Therefore, the deadline for the 2021 Mulert Award application had been pushed into 2022. From now on, the prize money will be 1000€: double the amount from previous years.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Trauermitteilung: Christine Tröger

Liebe Fulbright Alumni Familie,

Leider müssen wir Euch mitteilen, dass unsere Schwester, Freundin und Schwägerin Christine Tröger am Freitag, den 30.04.2021 verstorben ist. Sie hat einen starken tapferen Kampf verloren und ist friedlich auf ihre nächste Reise gegangen.

Christine hat so viele Menschen berührt, sich so sehr für Alles und Alle eingesetzt, was immer sie bewegt und berührt hat, nicht zuletzt auch in dieser Fulli Familie.

Ihre hinterlassenen tiefen Spuren voller Warmherzigkeit, Engagement, Lachen, kritischem Hinterfragen, Hilfsbereitschaft, ihre Begeisterung, ihr riesengroßes Herz, all ihre schillernden Farben – wir werden das Alles und so viel mehr von ihr so sehr vermissen und in liebevoller Erinnerung wahren.

Durch ihren und unseren Glauben sind wir sicher, dass sie bei uns ist und uns zusieht, uns beschützt. Mögen all die Engel, die sie so sehr mochte, sie auf all ihren Wegen begleiten.

In Liebe.

Karin, Martin, Margarete und Dorothea

Für alle Freunde und Wegbegleiter, die ihr Beileid bekunden möchten, ist neben der Traueradesse unter folgendem Link der SZ-Traueranzeige eine weitere Kondolenzmöglichkeit eingerichtet.

https://trauer.sueddeutsche.de/todesanzeige/christine-troeger

(Anmerkung: Falls Ihr den Link vom Smartphone aus öffnet, könnt Ihr in der mobilen Anzeige ganz nach unten scrollen. Dort kann man zur klassischen Ansicht wechseln, wo es u.a. noch ein Kondolenzbuch und Musik gibt.)

In stillem Gedenken

Der Vorstand des Fulbright Alumni e.V.

Join us for a deep discussion about the upcoming elections in Germany.

Together with the US Alumni Association of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Consulate General New York, we are proud to co-host the upcoming talk and discussion with Hon. David Gill, Consul General of Germany in New York:

Germany in the Run-Up to the Elections: How to approach global and domestic challenges?

The event will take place online on May 18 and registration is open until May 12.

Wunderbar Web Series

Dear Alumni,

Attached you will find the official invitation to the Wunderbar Webinar Series organised for alumni of over 8 different transatlantic exchange programs. We are very excited that the German Fulbright Alumni Association could be a part of this initiative. The kick-off event is on September 14 at 5:30 PM MESZ via Zoom with Robin Quinville, Chargée d’Affaires a.i., U.S. Embassy Berlin and Dagmar Freitag, MdB. You can find additional information and registration at the Eventbrite link: www.eventbrite.com/e/wunderbar-webinar-series-tickets-119539087629 and in the attached invitation.

We look forward to your participation!

Here is the official Wunderbar Web invitation

Registration Open: virtual Welcome (back) Meeting Sep 5 & 6

Hey, Du!

Sind wir uns schon begegnet oder steht das noch aus? Wir möchten Euch sehr gerne bald kennenlernen (oder wiedersehen) und dabei den Fulbright Alumni e.V. sowie einige Mitglieder vorstellen.

Was habt Ihr davon? Ihr könnt Gleichgesinnte kennenlernen, euer Netzwerk erweitern und Communities finden, denen Ihr beitreten und spannende Projekte auf die Beine stellen könnt.

Um Euch das möglich zu machen, haben wir für Euch ein kostenloses, virtuelles Welcome (back) Meeting organisiert. Neben einer kleinen Vereinsvorstellung und einer Keynote Speech möchten wir Euch zu einem Pub Quiz und zum Netzwerken einladen, aber auch in die Welt des Fulbright Alumni Spirits einzutauchen.

Wir freuen uns auf Euch am Samstag, den 5. September und Sonntag, den 6. September, 2020 auf Zoom, wo Ihr bestehende Vereinsmitglieder und neue Gesichter kennenlernen könnt. Die Registrierung und mehr Infos folgen in Kürze hier.

Kimberlyn Bailey wins Mulert Award 2020 with the “STEMM-Project” from Heidelberg

Germany, the US and many other countries have low rates of women in the senior-most career milestones in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) academia. Underrepresentation is undoubtedly an international issue. Nonetheless, there has been relatively little international conversation on the topic. One Fulbright alumna’s ongoing project tries to fix that.

The 2020 Mulert award was given to Kimberlyn Bailey, a 2018 – 2019 US Student Fulbright grantee, for a series of interviews she conducted with females in STEMM academia currently working in Germany. Bailey’s several dozen interviewees hailed from a variety of countries and academic STEMM fields.

Bailey’s interviews traced what started each women’s interest in STEM and how that interest became a STEMM career. From these career profiles, Bailey is writing, illustrating and producing a children’s book. Bailey explained, “We’re hoping that this book will help kids will discover or nourish their own STEMM interests by reading about how active women in STEM discovered and nourished their own STEMM interests.” This is Bailey’s second book she has created in concert with cuSTEMized, a non-profit devoted to fostering STEMM interests in young girls. The book will be released in English and German, free for download or available for purchase in print sometime in 2020. The Mulert award money will cover the costs of professional translation into German.

With each woman, Bailey also asked about their experiences as women in STEMM, their views on gender diversity initiatives and policies in STEM and relayed how their fellow interviewees answered, without revealing which woman gave a particular answer. Bailey explained the rationalte for these conversations. “I wanted to give these women — quite often the subject of public debate — a chance to weigh in for themselves and discuss what is ordinarily too heated a topic for open conversation. By not revealing which woman gave a particular answer, these women got to, for once, hear and react to the plethora of different viewpoints of their collagues.”

Bailey said what came through strongest from all these interviews was the critical role culture played in shaping each women’s experiences in STEMM and opinions about gender representation in STEMM. Bailey, herself a woman in STEMM who does sociology of STEMM research, hopes these conversations will fruitfully inform her future volunteer work and scholarship. Bailey commented, “The Fulbright/Mulert mission for ‘mutual understanding’ between countries is undeniably important. What it means to be a woman in STEMM drastically varies from one country to the next. I hope my future work and the children’s book will serve to support women in STEMM around the globe.”

 

FRANKly: Call for Articles

The 2020 Call for Articles for our association’s annual journal FRANKly is now available. Our editor this year – Jana Frey – is looking forward to your contributions on this year’s topic “reinventing comunities”.

Articles that exhibit a connection with the Fulbright Program, the German Fulbright Alumni Association (F.A.e.V.), or the network of Fulbright Alumni Associations across the globe are always encouraged. When submitting your article, please provide 2-3 sentences about yourself and a headshot. Authors are encouraged to submit images (3-6 images total) that support their article. Every photograph must include the photographer’s name and a caption. Articles may range in length from 3,000-12,000 characters (including spaces) and should be written in American English. The deadline for submissions is June 7, 2020.

Reinventing Communities

Being part of a community – or of different communities – is one of the most important aspects of our lives, as they are places where we connect with other people. The way we feel about communities and the way we act within in them shapes us as people and contributes to who we are.

As Fulbrighters we have all jumped at the opportunity to leave our own home communities for a time, at the opportunity to be part of new host communities in a different country as well as to completely create our own communities that are neither home nor host community, but something new. Communities today are capable of bridging borders. As members of the Fulbright Alumni e.V. we are part of a huge community of different people from all over. And we might be part of other communities: the sports community, the music community, the physical community of our home town or broadly speaking – the online community.

But the way we understand community has been changing drastically. The FRANKly 2020 welcomes contributions that focus on what community means to you: What experiences have you had with moving between different communities and which communities have you been part of? How have they shaped you and how have you shaped them? How have communities changed? And what kinds of opportunities might lie ahead in the communities of the future? How have we reinvented what community means to us in the
past? And will outside influences change our community beyond recognition, or can we take an active part in reinventing what community is today in a positive way?

Download Call for Articles 2020