Saturday, October 17, 2020

Pre-Departure Orientation -- for Outbound Fulbrighters

This week I was privileged to be a presenter/facilitator at the US Department of State's Pre-Departure Orientation for outbound Fulbrighters -- for the North Macedonia Country Session.

Prior to leaving for Moldova and more recently before leaving for North Macedonia -- the most valuable part of my preparation for my Fulbright Scholar awards was the Country Session at the PDO -- during which you have the chance to learn from those who are recently returned from the country where you are going.  It really is a pleasure to do whatever I can to ensure that the future Fulbrighters have an easy transition to their work in North Macedonia.

This year, our session was virtual -- and organized via a zoom meeting.  I loved meeting the 2020-21 group of  Fulbrighters as well as to see those from the 2019-20 cohort.   We missed out on the informal opportunities outside the country session we had to socialize and answer individual questions over lunch breaks or coffee breaks.  Still, we are available by email/text/phone/facebook - and are ready to answer any additional questions - outside this Country Session.

Some of my "show-and-tell" Macedonia tour books


One bonus of the zoom meeting format -- we were able to hear from Gazmend from the US Embassy in Skopje! There really is no better resource