Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Canton: The first time Joanna J. Fassett, 21, went to India, she spent a few delirious days in the hospital with bacterial dysentery. But she still can't wait to go back.
"India tried to kick me out. It didn't work," the St. Lawrence University senior said. "It's just what you get — bad things can happen anywhere. I'm getting my shots soon, so that's good."
The shots will come in handy when she goes back this fall on a Fulbright teaching assistantship. A few days in the hospital did nothing to dampen the Adams Center native's love for the country she first visited with an SLU program last fall.
When she leaves in July, it will be for nine months. She'll spend that time teaching English to middle- or high-school-aged children somewhere on the subcontinent. The details have not yet been finalized.
"I could be in a city, I could be in a village, in the north, in the south — I could be anywhere," said Ms. Fassett, who traveled across the northern portion of the country in the fall of 2008. "I didn't even touch the south. It's never-ending."
She was awarded a teaching assistantship grant, one of 11 available in India.
More than 600 Fulbright grants are awarded every year in 55 countries through the program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Applicants apply to live in a specific country.
While Ms. Fassett was in India before, she took classes about historical and contemporary India and learned basic Hindi, the nation's most prevalent language.
She also researched communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, as well as Sufism, a form of mystical Islam.
"I like Sufism a lot. I want to compare it to communal (violence) in India. Hindus and Muslims worship together at Sufi shrines," she said. "In the larger context of the nation, they're portrayed as being at odds."
She originally wanted to continue her research with a Fulbright, but the Indian government, which contributes to the program's funding, does not allow research about communal violence, she said.
"I decided to opt for the English teaching assistantship because I knew I just really needed to go back," the philosophy major said. "There's a lot of poverty in India; it's overwhelming and it's a little more abject than here in the U.S. There's a lot of prestige in India in knowing English. It gives them a lot of advantages in finding jobs and supporting their families."
Ms. Fassett has limited teaching experience, though she has tutored fellow students in writing. Being awarded the grant has given her more confidence that she can do the job, however.
"They train us for a few weeks and these kids aren't coming in with no knowledge of English. They told us we should expect them to have some basic working English," she said. "I'm looking to integrate it into my life when I get back and see where it takes me."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment