One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced since I found out I received the Fulbright grant is to figure out how I can actually be gone for a semester from my regular teaching gig. You see, most faculty would apply for a Fulbright grant at the same time that they are applying for a sabbatical. But I’m not most people and I’m not so good at waiting when I’m really excited about doing something. I am not eligible for a sabbatical for several more years and as I said, I’m impatient, so I just applied for the Fulbright grant and left sorting out the details of how I’d take the leave of absence until later (which is now.
Luckily, I live in Minnesota, which is Union country. We have strong unions, especially our teacher’s union. I’m a member of the MN State College and Faculty (MSCF) Union. While not perfect, we have a strong contract which allows for faculty to apply for an unpaid leave of absence. After numerous meetings with my union rep and the HR Director, we figured out a way for me to take a partial unpaid leave and still keep my health insurance. I’ll be on unpaid leave, so I’ll only be getting about 2/3 of my salary for the year but I’m grateful to have this option. Also, the Fulbright grant include a monthly stipend which will cover about half of my lost salary for the spring semester.
I have talked to other community college Fulbright scholars and alumni who had a much more difficult time arranging leave. One person wasn’t sure he was going to have a job to come back to after his Fulbright and another, after much negotiation, was able to get his community college administrator to guarantee that his job would be safe when he returned the next fall. In part, this is because many community college faculty don’t have the option to take a sabbatical. Again, I’m not using this benefit right now to do my Fulbright grant, but I’m grateful to my union that we have sabbatical leave in our contract.
Another major decision is if my family will be coming to Uzbekistan with me and if so, for what portion of my grant. The Fulbright program is at heart a cultural exchange program. As such, they encourage families to go with the Fulbright scholar and they even include additional funding to cover dependent travel and living expenses.
I think if I had been selected for a grant in Barbados, there would have been no question that my husband and son would accompany me. Uzbekistan took a little more contemplation. I left the decision about coming with me up to each of them independently. My son decided that he’d like to come with me for the entire 5 months. Yeah!
Unfortunately, my husband can’t just up and leave his job for 5 months. He can work remotely but given the 10 hour time difference between Minnesota and Uzbekistan working long-term from there wasn’t practical. He will have to use all his vacation time to come visit for about a month. I’m hoping that we can do some travelling around the country while he visits.
The next big decision facing us is to figure out the best schooling option for our son while he is with me in Uzbekistan. I’ll say more about that next week.
Experience Fulbright 