What is a Fulbright ETA?
Fulbright grants are funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Programs place recipients in classrooms abroad to provide assistance to the local English teachers. ETAs help teach English language while serving as cultural ambassadors for the U.S.
Below is my personal experience with the Fulbright application process in regards to applying as an ETA for South Korea. This blog is not affiliated with the Fulbright Program nor the Department of State. All views are my own and share no associations.
June 2022 - October 2022
Application
I began the application process starting in June of 2022. While the final application wasn't due until October, I wanted to make sure I gave myself plenty of time to create an application I was proud of.
For most of that summer, I spent a great deal of time working on my Personal Statement, Statement of Grant Purpose, and also just filling out general parts of the application.
My university had two Fulbright advisors that I worked closely with the next few months. Once I felt good about my essays, I had them looked over for feedback. My advisors arranged a meeting with myself and four other faculty members to go over my essays. I feel that this was a very crucial element in my application process. The group was able to give me thoughtful feedback which I felt really strengthened my application.
After reading over my application again and again, I decided that I had done my best and finally submitted it on October 10th! One of my friends recorded the moment I submitted the application and said "A year from now you could be in Korea!!" Little did I know!
So that was that! I didn't hear back from the Fulbright Commission again until January 25th.
At this point I had totally put Fulbright in the back of my mind. It was not only my last semester of college, but my most difficult too. I was so focused on just trying to pass my classes and graduate that I did not give Fulbright much thought. I knew how competitive Fulbrights were so I didn't want to get my hopes up by thinking about it too much.
My boyfriend and I had just sat down to watch a movie and upon checking my phone, I noticed I had an "Updated Status" email from Fulbright. This is when my heart started racing. In a shaky voice I told him "I got an email from Fulbright." With him holding my hand, I opened the email with honestly zero expectations on what I would read next.
"We are pleased to inform you that you have been recommended as a semi-finalist". This is when things started to feel a lot more real.
January 2023
Semi-Finalist
March 2022
Finalist
After founding out that I was semi-finalist in January, I started thinking about the possibility that I had a chance of moving to Korea. Although this was something that I really wanted, the idea also terrified me. I didn't want to give it too much thought until I knew my answer for sure.
I did my best to keep all thoughts about Fulbright in the back of mind and with the workload I had with school, that was quite easy to do. The Fulbright Commission had also said that we could find out about our finalist status anywhere from late March to early June. So I just went on about my life and waited for the email.
On March 28th, I checked my email before laying down for my afternoon nap. I had received an email from one of my advisors congratulating me on my Fulbright. She had just saw the news in my portal and wanted to reach out. I was so taken off guard because I hadn't heard from the Fulbright commission yet, I had thought this was just a normal email from my advisor. I kept thinking, "Is she talking about when I found out semi-finals, because that was 3 months ago??". A few minutes later, I received the official email from Fulbright and was in disbelief. I called so many of my family and friends, excitedly telling them the news.
Even though I was super excited, I also began to feel really scared. I had the option now to change my life and move to Korea. It was what I had wanted for years and now it was in my hands to take. But that meant leaving everything I loved here. The thought of leaving my family, friends, and boyfriend for a year gave me a pit in my stomach. I decided to just be in the moment and be happy with my accomplishment, setting aside the logistics later. After this news, I did not end up taking my nap.
After not hearing from the Fulbright Commission since May (where they more or less said "Hi! You still have the grant... but just sit and tight and we'll give you more info later!", I finally got all the paperwork on the first day of September. This included the actual acceptance letter where I had to check off if I was either going to accept or reject the grant.
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My decision to accept the grant was not a hard one! Fulbright provides an extremely generous grant for ETAs in Korea. The grant includes
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- Paid flights to and from Korea
- A six week intensive cultural and language orientation in Korea
- Housing and meals: Either with a homestay family or a studio apartment
- A monthly living stipend
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I am writing this section in September and there is a looooooot of paperwork. Since we are receiving information from both the Fulbright Commission and the Korean-American Education Commission, the amount of tasks to complete are adding up. At this point, it is less than four months before I leave 🫨
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