Pre-Departure Orientation -- 2020 -- webinar for alumni presenters

I am delighted to be presenting (as a Scholar Alum) at the Pre-Departure Orientation for the outbound Fulbrighters again this year.

As a participant in this Fulbright Scholar Program -- the assistance of alumni was invaluable. I am honored to have been invited to mentor/participate in the Pre-Departure Orientation for those heading out in 2021.

This year, all of the meetings and conferences at the PDO will be virtual.

And our first meeting with fellow alumni to go over our roles and responsibilities was virtual as well.  A lot of creativity in the planning for this year's PDO -- to ensure that it is as helpful, interactive, meaningful and impactful as when we are all together.

The most difficult thing to recreate will be all those opportunities we had at the PDOs to socialize over meals, coffee breaks, after formal sessions to talk about the myriad of logistical questions.

This year we will be using Canvas (among other tools) in new ways to invite more collaboration in discussion boards, etc.

(The most disappointing news of this webinar: if we were in person this year, we would have been at the University of Oregon!! Experts there will still be leading sessions for the outbound Fulbrighters -- but -- it would have been fantastic to be back in Eugene!)

The North Macedonia Country session is not for another 6 weeks. My plan is to get this blog updated with projects and activities (still missing posts from 2020, 2019 and 2018 that could provide helpful info for those planning to move to MK) before our session.

I was traveling and not in a place where I could join by laptop -- but I was able to join by phone