American Alumni Stories
"I just wanted to say how deeply and profoundly my exchange to Romania has affected my career. Truly, Romania is my home away from home. I have so many friends and colleagues there and have now visited well over a dozen times. I remain a champion for the program and laud the beauty of Romanian culture at every opportunity."
"I am delighted with the group of students taking my classes at the Gheorghe Dima Academy and also with the support I enjoy from the rector and his administrative staff. Although a tertiary music school is by definition an elite institution, I’m still amazed at how well these students understand English."
"Our family was warmly welcomed by everyone we encountered and my colleagues at the University of Oradea in the Faculty of Social and Humanistic Sciences were the best! […] For the new American Fulbrights, take advantage of every opportunity that unfolds and I wish you as wonderful an experience as I have had!"
"I returned to the Faculty of Journalism in June of 2005 as a short-term Fulbright scholar […] to teach a 10-day seminar to current students. Best of all, I would help celebrate a reunion with that first class of some 50 students. Since my arrival in Romania in the fall of 1991 I have returned a half dozen or more times as a reporter, teacher and journalism foundation executive."
"In 1995, Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin was introduced to Romanian and Balkan folk dancing, and she was transfixed by the rhythm and context. She would remember those dances a few years later, when she began to consider what type of photography project she would like to do."
"The Romania of 1979-81 was set in tragedy. The pain of oppression was everywhere—food lines, fear in people’s eyes, and, markedly, the ‘law’ to report all conversations with Westerners to the police within 24 hours. I had the honor of receiving a Fulbright lectureship for those two years and was fortunate to have been located in Sibiu."