Art by Nikita Hunter

As a young child,  I lived in Rego Park, New York.  For those of you not from the United States, Rego Park is in Queens, one of the 5 boroughs of New York. Each year, the Police Athletic League (PAL) would offer a contest for school kids in this urban environment and give out trophies.  At the age of 8, I won a trophy for a poem and picture that I drew about “my neighborhood.”  I remember receiving the trophy from some man that made my mother’s eyes bulge out of her head with shock and joy.  He walked us to the subway and she was beaming!  (As I grew older, I realized the significance of that man joining us for a stroll to the subway. That man was James Earl Jones, the actor who played Darth Vader in Star Wars!)

While on the internet tonight, I came across this beautiful video about a local school in Brooklyn – another of the 5 boroughs of New York. Nikita Hunter, a middle school teacher, participated in a Fulbright program to Japan and upon her return home, reflected on how she could share the culture most effectively with her young students.  The video below shows her very creative and successful attempt at doing so.

Ms. Hunter’s approach reminds me of the teacher’s power to expand the imagination, creativity and interest in other cultures in our youth.  It made me think how much more interesting the PAL contest that I participated in at the age of 8 would have been if I was asked to write a poem or draw a picture about my home AND another child’s home abroad – what culture would I selected? How would I have researched it at that age? What would my young mind have imagined another child’s home abroad to feel like?

Please enjoy “Japanese Me” as much as I did:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The U. S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has announced a competition to identify potential host institutions for the inaugural 2010 Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program for Iraq. This 10-week program will bring cohorts of Iraqi scholars in select fields to U.S. institutions for faculty development, research, and other guided study activities. The program is designed to equip grantees with knowledge and tools to build the capacity of universities in Iraq and to advance the education of future generations of Iraqis. The program will lay the foundation for Iraqi scholars and their U.S. hosts to develop long-term institutional relationships and areas of cooperation that can be sustained after the grant period. The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) will administer the program on behalf of the Department of State and is pleased to offer this opportunity for U.S. institutions to apply to host the scholars in the summer of 2010.

The application requires a written proposal, which is due to CIES by January 18, 2010. Note that hosting institutions will need to offer particular strengths in the areas of focus—education, management/business administration, science and technology (including engineering), linguistics (focus in ESL) and public health—and will include research universities, liberal arts colleges and comprehensive universities.

For more information, visit http://www.cies.org/Fulbright/Iraq/