Romania took hold of my heart in 2015 and since then has consumed my mind and soul. As with any genuine commitment, my relationship with this beautiful, complex country has grown and deepened over time as I have learned of its many tragedies, as well as its many triumphs. I have surrendered myself to Romania. [...] As I continue my Romanian journey, I marvel over the resiliency and fortitude of the people. I am fortunate to have developed close relationships, familial in many ways, with many Romanians. And I am eternally grateful to have been granted a Fulbright and honored to become part of this amazing community.
Joint Assignment Miami University/University of Bucharest
Third-year students in American Studies at the University of Bucharest ended their spring semester seminar in American Icons by completing a joint assignment with undergraduate students at the University of Miami, Ohio. Their instructor, U.S. Fulbright Scholar Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy and Miami instructor, Dr. Allison Wanger, coordinated a project where Romanian students and American students in a similar class at Miami had the opportunity to interview one another.
Each student was assigned a partner from the other institution, and together they discussed the cultural significance of specific American icons. Their findings were then integrated in written papers submitted for the two respective classes. The project used various online platforms, such as Whatsapp and Skype, to connect Bucharest students in real time with their American peers at Miami University. Despite technical challenges and the 7-hour time difference that sometime complicated setting up the interviews, both groups reported that they enjoyed discovering the variations in cultural perspectives about the same icons, but also the commonalities they shared.
As one student at University of Bucharest, Ioana Hangu, commented in her paper, “All in all, this assignment was helpful in seeing how, because of globalization and the Internet, two people that live at such a great distance from each other, one in America and one in Romania, can have such similar views.”
