The Virtual Fulbright English for Graduate Studies Program (EGSP) wrapped up on August 1, 2020 after an intensive three week program. Ten ELC faculty were involved in the development, coordination and teaching of the program, and despite the many challenges of providing a partially synchronous program to ninety-nine Fulbright grantees in forty-six different countries, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
I am completely satisfied with the EGSP program. There is nothing like it. I learned a lot from that program. I leave the EGSP program very enriched.
-A 2020 Virtual Fulbright EGSP Grantee
The Writing and Culture course culminated in the completion of short literature reviews, while the grantees applied what they learned by giving virtual presentations on their fields of study in their Oral Communication Skills course. Grantees also learned about and discussed various aspects of U.S. culture in these courses, from communication styles and ways of reasoning to education and athletics. They also completed an asynchronous course that provided lectures on U.S. Higher Education, U.S. Classroom Culture, Understanding Key Relationships, U.S. Healthcare, and MSU Police
In addition, the Fulbright grantees took part in several social hour events via Zoom. They met with MSU Fulbrighters who shared their own overseas Fulbright experiences, and they had Zoom meetings with MSU graduate students who had volunteered to take part in the Graduate Student Forum. They also had a chance to take part in virtual home visits with some ELC faculty and to share their own homes. While the ELC is looking forward to Fulbright EGSP returning to the MSU campus in the future, the success of the virtual program has opened up new possibilities for future programming.
