Fulbright Enrichment Seminar

        Every year, enrichment seminars are put on throughout America for first year Fulbright Scholars, allowing them to discuss topics pertinent to the ideals of the Fulbright Scholarship - mutual understanding and using it for worldwide benefits. This year was no exception, and Fulbright hosted around 10 different conferences all across the country from the start of February through March, encouraging scholars to discuss the important idea of social entrepreneurship - that is using business models with a social conscience to benefit people and communities.

        Scholars were not given a choice of host city, but could specify which dates would be best suited - in my case the last weekend of February. Hence I found myself on a snowy Thursday morning at the end of February sat on a plane ready for a 6 hour cross-country flight to San Francisco, CA. I seem to have a habit of flying during pretty severe snowstorms - and sure enough by 9am around two thirds of the flights scheduled were cancelled. Luckily our flight wasn’t too delayed and before I knew it I was up in the air.

        To say I lucked out was a bit of an understatement - from random assignments for my Gateway Orientation and Enrichment Seminar I had got Miami and San Francisco! Landing in 65F sunshine immediately brightened my mood and after a quick frozen yogurt at the airport I got onto the supershuttle to the hotel at Fisherman’s Wharf. Having a hour or two before the seminar started I decided to get a quick run in - heading along the bay. The 4.5mile route took me past Alcatraz and halfway along to the Golden Gate Bridge - amazing!

        That evening was full of introductions, and culminated in our welcome dinner with our keynote address by a social entrepreneur and academy award winner who had flown from Washington DC specially to give the address, and was flying straight back afterwards - talk about dedication! The speech covered a whole range of topics from what exactly is ‘social entrepreneurship’ to how we can get involved.

        The next couple of days were focused on discussing Social Entrepreneurship and how we can get involved. This included panel sessions with current entrepreneurs, case studies and working on ideas of our own. All the scholars were split up into around 8 groups, each being assigned a topic to try and solve through social entrepreneurship.
        To give you an idea of the kind of projects we discussed, our group was assigned environment, and we developed a business model to help clean up and educate Buenos Aries in Argentina. This involved hiring unemployed to clean up rubbish from streets and parks in Buenos Aries, and in exchange offer them free education and advice to try and get them back on the job ladder. This would not run as a charity, but rather as a business, competing for contracts from the government and private businesses, and looking to make a small profit that could be reinvested in the project. All this planning culminated in the group presentations and our group earned the runner-up slot! It was a great experience to really think through a project like this, but I realized that its probably better for me to just stick with the maths...

        Part of the enrichment seminars is always a volunteering opportunity, and the San Francisco conference was no different. Three projects were being supported: teaching in a local school, clearing up local parks and, the one I was assigned to, helping at the San Francisco Food Bank. If you have never heard of a Food Bank before, this is a big warehouse where food that is donated is collected, repackaged and distributed to projects such as soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Most of the food is either ‘staples’ such as rice, pasta and beans or food that is nearing its ‘best-before’ date. This food may be perfectly edible for a long time after the expiration date, and so the food bank can repackage and distribute this food instead of it going to waste.
        Our project was going to consist of some repackaging, this time of bulk supplies of frozen carrots, frozen sweetcorn and pinto beans. These were provided to the food bank in large tonne weight bags, and we would be repackaging into 1lb bags so that they could be easily given out to the needy. After our safety brief we got to work, and I got given the job of moving the food to the tables where others would sort into smaller bags - basically, all the heavy lifting! All I can say is that frozen carrots weigh a surprising amount, and I certainly made up for not getting to the gym while in San Francisco! It was great to help out with such a worthwhile project and be part of a chain that will end up feeding thousands of people in the Bay area.
        
        On the Friday evening we split off into pairs and threes and met a local family for dinner. These hosts generally had some link to Fulbright or IIE and myself and Teresa (from Argentina) were matched with Nancy Schneider and her lovely family. Nancy had been a Fulbrighter in Germany, studying public transport solutions whilst her husband Rick worked in air travel. They had two very friendly daughters Rebecca and Katie and we all headed to their favorite local restaurant for dinner.
        The whole evening was a lovely sociable occasion, and I learnt a lot about San Franciscan life - from what the girls were doing at school (including a heated argument about the relevance of Shakespeare!) to the local sports teams and attractions. I was overwhelmed by just how welcoming the family was and after dinner (which Rick insisted on paying for, even after I offered to pay my share) we headed for a quick tour of San Francisco in the car including the town hall, china town and other local landmarks, all accompanied by a fantastic commentary from the family. It was certainly a memorable night and a highlight of the whole conference.

        On the Saturday afternoon, after presenting our ideas, we had a couple of hours of free time, so myself and Jaykar (a UK scholar studying Public Health at Harvard) went to meet up with Mary O’Hara (another UK scholar, a journalist based in SF). It was great to catch up with both of them and see just how different our Fulbright experiences have been. Both Mary and Jaykar are here for around a year, so they have had much busier years, trying to pack in all their experiences whereas I can take it a little slower on the traveling front. We met in the one British-themed hotel in SF (complete with Beefeaters at the front door!) and spent a good hour or two chatting away before heading out to see the Chinese New Year parade.
        San Francisco has the largest china town outside of Asia and so the celebrations were like nothing I’d ever seen. The amount of people out was staggering, and there was parade float after parade float ranging from the stunning to the captivating to the ridiculous (I mean, a McDonalds themed float? Honestly?). Pretty soon we had to head to the docks for our evening cruise around the Bay, and we found out just how hard it is to move through thousands upon thousands of spectators when you need to get somewhere in a hurry!

        After battling through the crowds and doing a little running we made it to the dock and met up with the other Fulbrighters, and were soon aboard our boat for the evening. The boat was going to circle the Bay while we were served dinner and drinks and possibly use the dancefloor. The first thing I noticed was how rocky the boat was - considering the Bay seemed pretty calm that evening, we were being thrown around a little, drinks were nearly spilling and eating dinner was certainly more interesting than usual! Not only that but there was a mildly terrifying DJ on the decks - she looked like she was out of the 60’s complete with headband and was pretty much forcing people to dance against their will... Luckily I managed to escape her clutches by taking regular trips up to the viewing deck where I saw some amazing sights, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz, and all by moonlight - spectacular!

        Unfortunately, Sunday came around far too quickly and before I knew it I was saying goodbye to old and new friends, and promising to keep in touch when we got back to our hectic everyday lives. As I had managed to book a slightly later flight than a lot of people I ended up with a couple of free hours in the morning so decided to head out for another run. I headed out at around 8.30am and started heading up the bay towards the Golden Gate bridge. This time I didn’t stop halfway like last time and kept going, passing a triathlon club swimming in the Ocean, a cycling club heading out on a group ride and a running club that passed me at a speed about triple what I was going! The morning was perfect, sunny but not so warm that I overheated, and with just enough breeze to cool me down without blowing me off my feet. It truly is an amazing run and was rightly voted by Runner’s World one of the Top 10 Runs in America. Before I knew it I was underneath the Golden Gate bridge at a plaque where you can “offer your hands” to the bridge - a completely meaningless gesture, but also a nice way to feel like you had achieved something (there was even a little plaque on the floor for dogs to offer their paws!). I turned around and headed back to the hotel and the second half went even quicker than the way out. Before I knew it I was passing the shorefront shops and arriving at the hotel 7.5miles later - one of my longest runs ever, and without doubt my most memorable. As much as Fulbright organised an amazing conference, I think that run will stick with me most out of the 4 days - I really achieved the ‘runner’s calm’ and felt completely at peace during the run. I forgot all my work stress, all my responsibilities and just lived in the moment, drinking in the peace and calm. This all might sound a little arty-farty but if you run, or cycle or do any long-distance sport you’ve probably experienced something similar at one point during your training - sheer bliss!

        And with the run, that was the end of the conference. I got back on the plane for a 6 hour flight back to New Jersey, leaving the sun and warmth to be greeted by cold and rain. The four days soon seemed to fade into distant memory but they were certainly a highlight of the term so far, so thank you Fulbright!