Alumna Laura Low Discusses Her Time as a Fulbright Scholar

Laura Low, '97, participated in the Fulbright program for Global Teachers, during the summer of 2023. As a full-time Spanish teacher in New York and double alumnus, we wanted to learn more about her experiences travelling abroad and how her education as SUNY Geneseo prepared her for the journey.

Chelsea O'Brien: Would you briefly describe your teaching and education experience prior to participating in the Fulbright program?

Laura Low: So I've been teaching for 26 years and I graduated from SUNY Geneseo in '97 and my degrees are in special education, elementary education and Spanish. So I began my career with two years in special ed. And then I had to move from Western New York down to Long Island. And when I moved, I switched content areas. So since then I've been teaching Spanish.

Chelsea O'Brien: So what Fulbright program did you apply to? And why did you choose that program?

Laura Low: I applied for Fulbright teachers for global classrooms, and the reason I chose that particular Fulbright option was the duration of the field experience. That was my main consideration because first, I have a family, one of our children is still at home. The other one actually is at Geneseo.  And so I wanted to be considerate of my family and my commitments personally, and this was a shorter term field experience. So while the longer term field experience did sound very attractive, at this point in time, that was my main consideration. Also, I know that substitute teachers are at a premium these days and I wasn't sure if my district would approve a longer duration build experience, so that's why.

Chelsea O'Brien: What was the application process like?

Laura Low: There was a standard application they wanted to know my experiences in teaching my content areas. They wanted to know how long I've been teaching, as well as the nature of the district where I teach. They wanted to know about the demographics of the students that we serve, and they wanted to know if I had had any prior experiences abroad of any kind. There was the standard background information, but there were also a couple of recommendations I needed to ask for: one from a colleague and one from an administrator.

Chelsea O'Brien: Would you briefly describe your Fulbright experience and what a few of your top takeaways have been?

Laura Low: Ohh my goodness. Yeah, it's hard to describe that succinctly. I will preface all of it by saying that through this program I found a community of teachers who are just incredible human beings and we are still in touch weekly, sometimes daily. The program itself was a yearlong professional development online course actually. In the fall of last year, we all participated in the teachers for global classrooms course. Our cohort was divided into 3 sections and there were about 20 teachers per section and so there were three different professors who worked with us and they were lovely human beings. And you can tell that Fulbright is the flagship exchange program of our country because, you know, they've been doing this for years and they have it down to a science. They know exactly the kind of professional development that's worth our while. The course was very enriching. It was very intense, but it was also very illuminating and we got to know one another virtually throughout the whole course. 

And then in February, they had us all meet in Washington, DC for a two-day symposium. There were professional development workshops there and they also wanted to prepare us for the field experience. So, each portion of the cohort that was originally chosen were all going to different field experiences. So there was one group that was assigned to Ghana. There was another group that was going to Colombia. Our group was going to Uruguay and there was a fourth group that also went to Morocco.

So we got to know the people within our within our own cohort and we had training specific to our destinations for our field of our field experience as well. So that was kind of the star of the show. My particular group was leaving in June, and so we left in early June and we went for two weeks down to Uruguay. We visited about 14 different schools and yeah, it was just an intense and amazing.

Chelsea O'Brien: Wow.

Laura Low: It was just an incredible, worthwhile journey and like I said, the people who I met, not just from the US and you know, all the states that were represented by our group, but the people down at Uruguay, it's just such an amazing community of educators and the conversations that we had were just so compelling. And they fascinated me in that, you know, my gosh, no matter where you go in the US or even all the way down to South America, we find it’s like “Ohh, OK, so these are the challenges that you experience.” And we ask, you know, in your day today, how do you meet those challenges? What do you do? How do you collaborate with other people? And it was just this grand exchange of ideas. 

I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I've been in touch with people who were selected for this year's program and wildly jealous they're going through a process right now. We just received notification, you know, welcome to alumni status and Fulbright. And here is a wealth of resources that you can access as part of the alumni community. So, the journey continues and it's just it's wonderful, it's really, really fun.

We have a Zoom meet planned for just before Thanksgiving, just to say hello and how's everything going? 

So, I was looking up our statistics, our particular group, because the numbers are already escaping me, but we had, let's see, there were 18 teachers in my cohort just for Uruguay and we represented 10 content areas and we were from 15 different states.

Chelsea O'Brien: Wow, that diversity is amazing. And can you talk a little bit about how the Fulbright program has affected you as a teacher?

Laura Low: For sure, it has definitely reminded me to not miss the forest for the trees, so to speak, and to not get so wrapped up in what really can be the minutiae of day today and just see the bigger picture. You know what? What is it that I, in my content area, want my students to be able to do? And it has opened up new means of communication, new means of making it meaningful to them and showing them how the use of world language really is possibly the primary connecting force between people.

And it's opened up, you know, all of these resources. We're in touch between schools in the United States, but also in Uruguay. Like currently all five of my classes have been in communication with two different high schools in Uruguay, so it's been fantastic for the students. They are so eager to print, to practice their English, and of course me, as a Spanish teacher, I'm eager to have my students practice their Spanish.

And they cannot wait to hear back. Once we send off a message, they can't wait to hear back. Our most recent messages were video messages through Flip and so I think that it's made our goals more meaningful and more worthwhile to the students as well. And it's been really rewarding watching them read communications from their counterparts in Uruguay and understand that they’re really leading parallel lives. What they enjoy doing there is very much like what my kids enjoy doing here. It’s just a matter of communicating, using the target language in our respective classrooms, to get in touch and make those connections.

Chelsea O'Brien: That's amazing. How did your experiences at SUNY Geneseo and in the School of Education and preparing to participate in a Fulbright program?

Laura Low: Well, I should mention I was a study abroad student at SUNY Geneseo. So of course that that really helped lay the foundation for meaningful experiences using the target language of study and understanding the bonds that can be created when you immerse yourself in another culture and make the effort to speak to other people's language. My parents were language teachers, so I was not a stranger to travel before that.

But as a student at the School of Education at SUNY Geneseo, that was just a different way. It was very different from how I had ever traveled before going off on my own and building the confidence to be a solo traveler, a solo explorer in another part of the world. That was a very impactful experience and I would recommend SUNY Geneseo study abroad to anybody and everybody. So that was huge.

The professors that I met along the way were just encouraging and knowledgeable people who inspired young educators to go out and to make a difference again. Another recommendation I would have would be the Geneseo School of Education. That's a win all the way around, you're going to just come out ready, as prepared as one can be prior to the first year of teaching. That's what Geneseo’s School of Education can offer.

Chelsea O'Brien: That's great to hear. Why do you think other educators should participate in Fulbright program?

Laura Low: Well, I feel like I had a unique experience as a world language teacher because there were only two of us of the original 60 teachers that were chosen to form these four cohorts, 4 cohorts going to four different countries. They were only two of us that were world language teachers, and so it was very eye opening to me to see special education teachers reading teachers, elementary teachers, social studies, science, you name it, watching the eye-opening experiences that they were having throughout the discussions that we had on during our virtual course. And then when we got to our field experience gave me a newfound appreciation for, you know, the perspectives of people who may not have necessarily traveled a lot. 

You know, in years past I spent, you know, an extended period of time in another country. So I feel like each person brought their own unique perspectives and they were looking through the lens of their own content areas. But, but through the dialogue that we were having, each person was giving me new food for thought that I wouldn't have previously considered as someone who had traveled throughout her life. And as someone who's very pro, you know, multicultural education, so I would recommend it across content areas. I'm not surprised that there weren't very many world language teachers in our cohort because I think they probably aim some of these programs towards, you know, people who don't necessarily live in the global education world from day to day in their own classrooms.

Chelsea O'Brien: What would you say to a current School of Education student thinking about applying to a Fulbright program?

Laura Low: I would say do it absolutely. Do it, throw your hat in the ring and if they don't accept you the first time, well then try again the next the next at the next possible opportunity. But it is so worthwhile. I had colleagues in the program say that it was it was life changing and to do that at a much younger age, you know, I've been teaching for 26 years, but to see, you know, a younger college student considering a Fulbright program, Mama Mia, they should. They should absolutely do it. They'll never regret it, and it will absolutely have a positive impact on their life.

Chelsea O'Brien: Is there anything else you'd like to share about your Fulbright experience or the program as a whole? Anything else you want to share?

Laura Low: I hope I've conveyed enough how passionately I feel about this particular form of professional development. It's outstanding. Global education is the name of the game. I mean, we are more connected than we've ever been before and that's the direction in which we're headed. We're only gonna get more and more connected globally, so if SUNY Geneseo can help younger teachers to be setting their sites on global education and connecting our students in that way then I encourage everybody, anybody who is eligible to apply for those experiences.

Chelsea O'Brien: That's great. Thank you so much for spending time with me today.

Laura Low: Anything anytime. I appreciate the opportunity because I know SUNY Geneseo has a lot of Fulbrighters, undergraduate and graduate Fulbrighters, so I thought, you know, and there were people along the way, especially when I was first accepted to the program, that said you have to tell SUNY Geneseo, you do know, they're track record of Fulbright. And I read about it in one of the alumni publications. And you know what?

I'm going to get in touch with them and see if they're interested in hearing about this program.