Getting there is the hard part (November)
Stories, experiences and learnings in the US - part 1
Let’s start from the very beginning. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t get any funding to come to the US, and then I wouldn’t be writing this story today. But I got lucky. And now I get to tell you about all the work that got into actually getting here.
This story started somewhere in October 2022, about a year before I would finish my PhD and actually leave for the US. We had just gotten in contact with the Joint Genome Institute in Berkeley and at a meeting with my supervisors, one of them casually said that I should consider going there after my PhD. I wasn’t so sure. But after giving it some thought, it did seem like a unique opportunity, so we reached out to ask if there was any interest in collaborating after my PhD. And there was! So now what? I needed to find a source of funding for this thing to become a reality.
Unfortunately for Belgians, there are not a lot of organizations that provide opportunities to do research or teaching activities in the US. The only two well-known options are the Fulbright Program and the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF). At the time, we would not make the yearly deadline for proposals of the BAEF, which left the Fulbright Program as our only option. Throughout November, we worked hard on a research proposal and filling out all the necessary documents. I even took an official English language test (TOEFL) to up my chances. By the end of the month, we got everything finished in time; proposal submitted!
After that, there was a first selection round in February, which I passed. This got me into a second interview round in which I had about 10-15 minutes to answer questions from the jury and convince them to send me to the US. The final news came in March: I was officially selected as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. From that point, all of the preparatory work started: applying for a J1 visa to be able to enter the US, filling in all the necessary paperwork for the Fulbright Commission, registering with the Berkeley Lab as an official affiliate (the Berkeley Lab is a US national lab, which comes with a bunch of security protocols before being admitted), finding a place to stay across the Atlantic, budgeting to know what kind of place I could afford in the Bay and so on… all while finishing my PhD.
I often think of this quote: “It always seems impossible, until it’s done” (Nelson Mandela). That was also my feeling when I was writing my Fulbright proposal and just hoping for the best outcome. It felt like such an impossible scenario that I would perhaps really be going to the US! But then I got selected, did all the prep work, and barely a week after finishing my PhD I got on the plane to San Francisco. It’s been an amazing journey so far (but not all positive though!), which I will be writing about in the next few blog posts. Stay tuned!
Dimi