A Taste of Life: My Fulbright Experience in New Orleans
Arriving in the United States was a very special experience for me. It was mixture of feeling excitement, anxiety, and happiness. It was like a dream come true. Applying to Fulbright was my natural next step after working in a biology lab and realizing this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
New Orleans, aka “The Big Easy”, is definitely one of the most unique and interesting cities in all of the United States. The city is colorful, soulful, and it really appreciates good jazz music and amazing local food. I spent the first two weeks as a tourist enjoying what this great city has to offer, through parks, restaurants, museums, and of course, the French Quarter. A huge plus for me about this city is the weather, which is very similar to the weather in Egypt. There are a lot of food and groceries I would like to take back with me to Egypt, which includes: amazing local burgers, half-and-half, Lays potato chips, Dr. Pepper, Cherry and Vanilla Coke, deep dish pizza, Popeye’s Fried Chicken, and Chick-fil-A.
The first couple of weeks at Tulane University were challenging for me, yet I was able to quickly get a grasp of how things work. After I got used to the system here, I was able to be more productive than before. I started making friends from all around the globe, which helped me gain different perspectives and generate new ideas about how life works in different parts of the world, religion, and global politics.
Tulane University is a great institution. It has an amazing community and a great infrastructure. There are people here from different parts of the world and many different states. The program is well-established, most of the classes were comprehensive and actually give an insight into helping one build a mentality that forms the basis of the next step of their life. The career advising staff are doing a wonderful job and are very helpful. The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library is an incredible library at Tulane that I used daily and has books covering every subject you can imagine. The tools provided and the research team here are indispensable. Overall, this program was perfect for me academically.
Programs in America are much more flexible than programs in Egypt. You get to choose most of your classes; classes that you feel are closer to your mindset and would benefit you in your career. You’re evaluated for your performance in class discussions, which unfortunately we don’t have in Egypt. Professors here apply for tenure track, which creates competitiveness that is great for the academic atmosphere by giving each one the chance to deliver their best. All of this makes the educational system in the United States a “student-centered” system, which allows for greater dynamics. Programs in Egypt also have a substantially higher student-to-faculty ratio. Smaller ratios in the United States allows professors to focus more on the needs of their students, it also allows for personal interaction between the professor and the student, allowing them to work on student’s own weakness points and/or develop their skills. My professors at Tulane were very supportive and professors mostly focus on ideas and how pieces of information are connected to each other. They’re always saying “You got the idea? You good! Next!” to make sure we’re following. Programs in Egypt, however, depend mainly on memorizing books, which unfortunately doesn’t help them very much in their careers.
During my Fulbright I had a chance to go on a road trip. I visited the three major cities in Texas, four different national parks in Colorado, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles in California. We traveled 5,100 miles in 20 days and drove through 9 states using 2 cars. I enjoyed every moment of this trip. I am going to miss every place I visited. It was my first time experiencing snow in Denver and during parts of it, it was also my first time traveling by myself. I learned how vast and diverse the United States are as well. I like to think of the United States as a continent, with every state being its own country.
For me, studying here helped me expand my mental horizons, break my “norms”, see a lot of things differently, and it definitely changed the curve of my life forever. I wish to pursue a career in academia. I learned many skills at Tulane through presentations I gave, classes I took, professors I communicated with, research I read, cultures I was exposed to and much more. By coming back, my degree will open doors for me whether I’m applying to teach or applying for a PhD at any university. Getting a degree from an academically rigorous university such as Tulane will definitely be a huge plus and will open doors for me. Thank you Fulbright.
Mahmoud is about to graduate with an MS in Neuroscience from Tulane University. He’s from Egypt.
