Current Fulbright grantees Sarah D’Antoni, Mariah Ligas, Brooke Reavey and Chealin Won created a couple of videos to help future U.S. Fulbright grantees to Romania familiarize themselves with Romanian language, culture, traditions, and holidays.

This Friday, April 13, Fulbright ETA and FEAC friend Bridget Kelly kindly agreed to deliver a talk on the Irish American heritage for the benefit of students at “I. L. Caragiale”, as part of our Heritage Month cultural events series.

An average 30 high school students, mainly 11th graders, attended the event, eager to learn more about the Irish American community and its distinctive traditions. Bridget provided an engaging overview of the history of the Irish American community and its valuable contributions to U.S. society, interspersed with insightful anecdotes from her own family history. She was also happy to answer questions from the audience, on topics ranging from instances of discrimination to her sense of belonging to American society as a whole.

The FEAC-EducationUSA team accompanying Bridget for this event took the opportunity to tell the students about the other cultural events we host at FEAC, as well as about the wealth of resources and services we provide for students interested in studying in the U.S.

Fulbright ETA Chealin Won, currently teaching at the University of Craiova, recently visited the School of Public Health in Cluj, where she met with first year students about the health care system in the U.S. as well as Romania. Focusing on the intersectionality of race, socioeconomic status, and access to healthcare, Chealin spoke about current limitations and what an ideal healthcare system may look like for the next generation in both the U.S. and Romania. Additionally, the students and Chealin had a meaningful conversation about the importance of sex education in Romania and how it can be incorporated into the public education sector.

U.S. Fulbright grantee Sarah D’Antoni, affiliated with Ovidus University in Constanta, visited Craiova University’s ELTIS practice course on Thursday April 5th. The event was organized with the help of Craiova Fulbrighter Chealin Won. Sarah’s lecture, titled "Framing Your Thoughts", focused on where ideas come from and how we formulate them into conversation and written tasks. This lecture helped to develop the students’ understanding and preparation for ‘Writing Task 2’ of the ELTIS exam they are planning to take in May. The course began with a discussion of where ideas come from, followed by a brief meditation and stream of consciousness writing exercise. After brainstorming, the group decided on a topic and proceeded to apply the ‘Sandwich Method’ of writing in order to put their ideas in an organized written pattern. The lecture concluded with a 20 minute writing exercise, expanding on the initial ideas developed during the group work phase of the lecture. The students found the lecture be very entertaining and beneficial in their preparation for the upcoming exam.