Kerstin Rosero '11

Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in the Teaching Assistant Diversity Program in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where she will be a language assistant at a high school that has a large number of students with immigrant backgrounds.

On November 15, 2012, Kerstin wrote:

My Fulbright experience had its ups and downs. I grew up in San Francisco and have lived in Manila, Munich, Taipei and of course Portland, but I was placed in a pretty small town with 10,000 residents, 50 minutes away by train from the nearest fellow Fulbrighter. It definitely took some getting used to, but my colleagues were great and I felt super involved with the school. I was pretty much given "artistic" freedom to experiment with lessons, took part in Parents Night, led student clubs, held tutoring sessions, etc.

Building a social life was a bit difficult at first. I ended up traveling to different parts of Germany and Switzerland every weekend, so unsurprisingly the good friends I made ended up scattered all over Germany. I'm pretty sure I made it to every major city in the country, staying with new friends and friends-of-friends, and even hopped over to parts of Sweden and Norway to see old friends. I definitely took advantage of the German train system, so being placed in a small town
wasn't too bad after all.

Upon my return I went back to San Francisco for a couple of months and did a CELTA course to teach English abroad. I'm actually working as a language trainer in Germany now until I figure things out....

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