At the age of nine, I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease known as Keratoconus.

Although currently corrected, at that time, the blurred vision meant my childhood dream to
become a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees was over. I had to abandon
my childhood dream and prepare myself for the possibility of someday being blind. It was
scary, and, in blatant terms, the commencement of my language-learning passion. I was
forced to specialize in something that could be done without eyesight, and language was my
choice. The diagnosis took place at the exact moment in middle school when I had to choose
between French and Spanish. The timing of the two was simply amazing. I felt, in a time of
great fear and uncertainty, empowered through a discipline that could be a proprietor of
success in my then ever-so-possible future as a blind man. My choice of Spanish stayed with
me through middle school, high school, and is with me now as a senior in college. In high
school, I studied Spanish and Latin simultaneously and attempted French and Ancient Greek
on my own time. In college, the decision and fluency in Spanish at the time sent me to
Salamanca, Spain where I took classes with foreigners and Spanish natives. Upon arriving
back to the United States and Castleton State College (CSC) in Vermont, I was asked to
coordinate the Study Abroad Program; it was an offer that I never expected to receive. The
new responsibility helped me discover a new passion in my life: to encourage others to study
abroad. Working as the Study Abroad Coordinator (SAC) has allowed me to enter numerous
classrooms campus-wide and give presentations to freshmen students about the study abroad
process and its possibilities. Although what I have been learning and doing hasn’t been
playing for the Yankees, I have been developing a passion that has opened unexpected doors
and inevitably led me to helping others study abroad. In addition to my position as the SAC, I
have been working on a teaching portfolio and student teaching in a local high school on
Mondays and Wednesdays. The experience has been an eye-opener and a challenge
simultaneously. With the help of a mentor teacher, I have learned a lot about teaching students
with individual needs and how to specifically utilize language instruction theory like Total
Physical Response. In the classroom I combine my language-learning passion and cultural
immersion enthusiasm to convey the importance and practicality of knowing a non-native
language. By applying, I hope to be granted the opportunity to continue encouraging other
students and share my success to inspire Colombian students to learn English. I strive to learn
new teaching methodologies that I can use in the United States when I start my career as a
Spanish teacher. Furthermore, I hope to be able to build on my experience in Buenos Aires by
utilizing my extroverted and empathetic personality to volunteer in an orphanage-like home
for children who require parental models and special attention. In the event that such a venue
is unavailable at my placement, I will push to use my special education training to interact
with neurodiverse children at a local school and spend extra time with those that the school
deems in need of such one-on-one tutoring. Lastly, I hope to be able to create a fresh idea in
the minds of foreign students about the United States‘foreign affairs mission. As a teacher in
the Fulbright program I will be a representative of the United States and its people; therefore,
I will act according to the mission of the program and adhere to its guidelines in a
professional manner. My overall hope is to learn a new culture, teach language and culture,
volunteer with children, and gain a new dimension of experience as a foreign language
teacher.

Personal Statement Brian, Colombia, English Teaching Assistantship