March 29, 2022

During Women’s History Month, World Learning spoke again with some of our extraordinary staff who are making history today through their work, their thinking, and their actions. Here’s what they shared.

Amirah Nelson

Program Officer, Exchange and Training Unit

What experience has had the biggest impact on your career?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Fulbright U.S. Student Program changed my life. When I first traveled to Indonesia in 2012 to teach 10th graders as a Fulbright English teaching assistant, I had huge aspirations to be of service to others, improve my Indonesian, and play a small part in expanding an understanding of America’s diversity abroad. I never imagined this experience would launch my career in international education and come full circle as I now work as the senior outreach officer for the Fulbright Specialist Program.

While I had studied abroad in college, Fulbright was my first time living independently and working professionally in another country. Life in Indonesia was full of new challenges, not to mention being routinely humbled by teenagers! But the experience came with incredible rewards. Fulbright gave me the opportunity to learn how to think on my feet, present my ideas clearly and effectively, and really listen to others in order to understand how you can move your goals forward together. These are all skills that I use as a professional today.

What advice would you offer a young woman looking to enter your field?

Earlier in my career, I did not realize just how many different ways there were to forge a career path in international education, both in terms of the type of work you can do as well as the organizations you might ultimately want to work in. There is no shortage of women in leadership and other senior positions across the field, so take advantage of their experience and don’t be shy about reaching out for a quick informational interview!

Lisa George

Deputy Director, Exchange and Training Unit

What experience has had the biggest impact on your career?

My experience as an exchange student at the age of 16 was one of the most significant experiences of my life. As I was boarding a plane to begin that exchange, teary-eyed and thinking of a million reasons why I shouldn’t go, my mother gave me the best words of advice that I have ever received.

“Just get on the plane, the rest will work itself out.” To this day, they are still the best words of advice I’ve ever received.

My anxieties dissipated upon meeting my host family. They welcomed me into their home with open arms and treated me as one of their own, teaching me what it meant to be a “Tica” and showing great patience, understanding, and encouragement as my language skills slowly improved and I adjusted to life in Costa Rica. I still remember the triumph I felt when after weeks of cold showers, I finally found the words to ask about the hot water system. My time in Costa Rica pushed me out of my shell, giving me the self-confidence and courage that I needed to step out of my comfort zone.

Twenty-four years later, I am still amazed at the profound effect that one summer had on my life. I did other exchange programs in Italy and Turkey, taught English abroad, and earned a master’s degree in international education. I have been fortunate to work with hundreds of secondary and university students from around the globe because of that single summer experience. That summer truly became entwined with the person and professional I have become and will be in the future.

What advice would you offer a young woman looking to enter your field?

International Education is a multi-faceted field. There is a multitude of ways to support participant experiences, from application review and host family interviewing to program design and implementation. Don’t be afraid to reach out to women already in the industry and ask questions about their own experiences to help you narrow your own particular scope.

If you could speak with any woman in history, who would it be, and what would you ask her?

Dorothea Lange. She was an American documentary photographer, well known for her work with the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. Her work greatly influenced documentary and journalist photography. For her, photography was a tool to inspire social change by putting a human face to the social injustices of the times. It’s been 86 years since one of Lange’s most famous images, “Migrant Mother,” was captured. I would love to learn her opinion of how documentary photography has evolved and developed to influence social change, especially in the age of social media where we are bombarded with images daily — how does documentary photography need to keep evolving to keep ahead of image burnout?