Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) awards offer a unique opportunity for individuals like Nagea Kirkley to immerse themselves in global communities while sharing their expertise in language and culture. These prestigious awards facilitate cultural exchange and educational enrichment, allowing participants to contribute meaningfully to the societies they engage with. Nagea Kirkley, an alumna of Howard University with degrees in International Affairs and Community Development, embarked on her Fulbright journey in 2023, bringing her passion for education and community development to the Ivory Coast. ProFellow interviewed her to learn about her motivations for applying to this host country and her accomplishments as a Fulbrighter.
What made you pursue a bachelor’s in international affairs/community development? And why a French minor?
While applying to colleges as a high school senior, I was not sure what to pursue. Eventually, I chose to pursue the topics that I liked, which were social studies, politics, and foreign languages. After doing research, I found that international affairs had all of those requirements, leading me to choose that major. I quickly realized that international affairs was much more than foreign languages and politics, but also sociology, economics, history, and more, depending on your specialization.
Because of the intersectional nature of my studies, which highlighted how problems were created and maintained, I sought ways to disable or undermine failing or oppressive systems. While learning more and more about international affairs, I realized that I wanted to have a positive social and economic impact on my surrounding communities. I began to search for more practical ways to implement and finance my ideas, which led me to community development as a second major. Through community development, I learned about community development financial institutions and modes of development. This major was also intersectional in nature, covering economics, educational studies, urban planning, and more.
What interested you in applying to Fulbright, and why the Ivory Coast?
I learned about Fulbright in my first internship with the Atlanta Bar Association SLIP program the summer after graduating high school. Since 2019, Fulbright has been somewhat of an interest, but for research. I only took Fulbright seriously once I made the personal goals of being posted by my university and studying abroad at least once. Still, due to COVID-19, I could not travel for the study abroad fellowship opportunity I received. I knew I wanted to do something significant and impactful with a global reach. After the National Merit and Scholar office hosted events fully detailing the Fulbright program, I was sold. I took Fulbright seriously and attended the workshops my university held.
This led me to choose the Ivory Coast because I wanted to improve my French language skills, learn about one of my heritage countries, and gain an authentic introduction to life and different social and economic systems. I had to make sure that it was the Ivory Coast that I wanted to go to and not another Francophone West African country like Senegal or Cameroon, which are also heritage countries of mine. So, I started to do more research and found interesting things. For example, Ivory Coast used to have a national literacy program that the government used to show for TV programming, and it helped raise the country’s literacy rates tremendously. They also focused on women’s development agenda to achieve gender equity and the world’s largest Basilica.
My French language skills were, at best, at a low intermediate level before coming to the Ivory Coast because I took French through AP in high school. I used everything I learned from high school to manage through university while skipping French 1-4. On paper, I’ve consistently scored pretty well in French, but once I arrived in Ivory Coast, I realized I had to practice a lot to reach professional working proficiency. Not only did I have to work on my French listening and speaking, but I also had to learn a little bit of Nouchi (a local Ivorian language) in order to better connect with my community. Luckily, my friends and coworkers, who are now my family, were patient enough to teach me words, phrases, and intonation. At the same time, I practiced speaking French in my personal time.
What were your responsibilities during your fellowship? And what were some highlights of the experience?
My only responsibility was to assist the teachers at my host public school and lead the English club, so I studied my host environment to see where I could take on extra responsibilities and contribute to a better, safer, cleaner community.
This led me to take a poetry class at the US Embassy of Côte d’Ivoire, where I spearheaded an anthology project (book of poems). I am using this book of poems to earn money to purchase Internet for my host public school. I also led a fundraising campaign for a local social education center in Bingerville, Ivory Coast. We ended up earning $1500 and bought some musical instruments, books, and other classroom supplies in both French and English. I realized that I didn’t have to confine my responsibilities to the Ivory Coast only, so I also helped another ETA with their plans to host a cultural and literary festival in Mombasa, Kenya, through fundraising and planning.
Some highlights from my experience here have been receiving the pianos for the social education center and teaching my friends how to play the piano, spending time with my mentor and his family on his birthday and Christmas, and learning how to cook African food. I also really enjoyed attending the midyear conference in Senegal and meeting all the other English teaching assistants, seeing the African Cup of Nations games in person and winning the cup, throwing a birthday party with all of my closest friends, and doing a photo shoot for my birthday.
Were there any challenges you faced?
The only challenge I faced was finding housing that was adequate and worth the price. We were sent documents with contacts to people who should have had housing available. However, those did not pan out for us initially. However, we found new contacts within the first week of being in Côte d’Ivoire and utilized them to help us find long-term housing.
Prior to arriving in the country, the embassy staff were very busy, so it also took them a while to contact us back through email. We had to reach out to them multiple times to make sure they did not miss our emails or forget about us when filling out our travel documents.
The language barrier within the first four to five months also created some instances of confusion, but people were generally patient with me.
Now, as a Master’s student, where do you hope to go next?
I will be attending Johns Hopkins University in the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, where I will be studying international relations with a concentration in International Development and a regional focus on the African continent. I hope to create a social impact enterprise that utilizes technology to connect people operating in the informal economy, giving them financial and social protections. Also, I plan to attach a nonprofit to my social enterprise (LLC) to continue to do community projects globally and receive grants as a state department fellowship alumna.
I would also love to create financial and career services programs to give back to my HBCU, Howard University. There’s so much talent and innovation in the student body and recent Alumni group that largely goes unrecognized because of financial barriers.
And finally, can you offer tips for others looking to apply to Fulbright?
Start by creating a list of fellowships, internships, and scholarships you would like to apply to and see how you can create a narrative surrounding your work and academic experience for the statement of grant purpose. I knew I wanted to do Fulbright, so I became a teaching fellow at Breakthrough Atlanta. There, I took community development classes and classes on African studies and African diaspora studies. I also started a community service club on my campus.
Make your personal statement authentic and unique while showing humility and growth. I personally talked about how speaking Ebonics or African-American English acted as a sociocultural, linguistic barrier for many people who lack the ability to code-switch into standard English in the courtroom. I talked about how I sought to help those people and how it catapulted me on this journey of learning and unlearning many things.
Reach out to Fulbright alumni on LinkedIn and on the Fulbright platform, where you can find anybody who has received a Fulbright and ask meaningful and pointed questions to help inform your decision on what country you want to choose, community projects you want to do, and/or what you want to research.
Want to learn more about the Fulbright awards? Check out new awards and resources for your application!
Nagea Kirkley is an alumna of Howard University where she earned degrees in International Affairs and Community Development with a French Studies minor from Atlanta, Georgia. A 2023-2024 Fulbright ETA, Nagea creates community development projects surrounding education and financing. Owner of Mecagii LLC, a social impact enterprise, Nagea does pro-bono consulting and service projects. As a Master’s student at Johns Hopkins University studying International Relations with a focus on African area and international development studies, Nagea aspires to pursue her goal of becoming an International development specialist.
© 2024 ProFellow, LLC. All rights reserved.