Fulbright's ride to MEM
MEMorandum
10
“The culture of each state of the United States has a distinct flavor”, said Colton, while the map of the United States showing different regions projected on two screens of the Schiciano auditorium. I wondered, how all of a sudden it became convenient to find out the interesting things of the United States culture, standing alongside the podium in front of the hall were my classmates telling about all the special things about their country in a fun way. The distinct things I would want to know; the music, the food, the places to visit. Sitting in the middle of enormous hall packed with more than a hundred international students, I was getting the answers to the questions I had been planning to ask. The entire auditorium applauded as the cultural presentation concluded and yet another exciting thing was yet to happen, the traditional food of the United States. The food provided a great opportunity not only to taste traditional food but also to socialize and network with MEM students, which is otherwise difficult given the high number of students and tough academic schedules. The cultural events every Friday made me think how closely it paralleled with the Fulbright vision, cultural exchange being the essence of the Fulbright program. With a brief 10-15 minutes presentations by students of their country, talking about their culture, festivals, events and places followed by their country’s traditional food, it has been a unique experience of the program and can most certainly be regarded as one of the best extra-curricular and obscured advantage of the MEM program.
On the first day at Duke, I knew based on my past experiences that it is going to be unique and that’s what happened. My first task was to get the Duke card and there I was in the third floor of Teer building asking how to get the Duke card, it said somewhere that engineering administrative offices were on that floor, I was directed to the Duke Card office and I got the card shortly after, but it is now that I realize that I have never been to that floor again even though many of the classes are held in that building, it’s been quite a ride since then. From orientation week to midterms and from midterms to thanksgiving holidays, birthday parties and sporting events along the way are the highlights that I can recall easily in my mind. It has been a time intensive semester but full of amazing learning and fun activities. I found MEMP workshops series and skill developing sessions by MEMP clubs to be particularly stimulating and helpful, my favorite being the “High Stakes Media Communication” during which the participants experienced a press conference in a simulated crisis situation.
MEM being a professional program emphasizes career search right from the onset and all the career related sessions have been useful in gaining the insights of recruitment process and effective networking with the industry. However, for me the distinctive advantage of MEMP remains to be able to take course from different schools; including Fuqua, Pratt and Law; that provides an added opportunity of meeting people not only from different countries, but also from assorted fields of industry and career paths. Another added bonus of MEMP was to find Fulbright community within the program; Khalil, Amine and Amal; which is relatively a huge number, and demonstrates high standing of the MEMP across the globe. The student diversity in the program has served me very well in developing global perceptions and understanding dissimilar viewpoints and I hope the program continues to add more and more value to its overall curriculum.
Syed Ahsaan Rizvi,
Candidate
MEMP, May 2014