To Minsk (Минск) and Beyond!

How We Got Ourselves Into This Mess 

Well, our Fulbright story actually begins in the summer of 2010.  We were visiting Jacque's family in California when I received an email from a colleague at UVU, Dr. Paul Dishman (Paul had completed a Fulbright to Montenegro the previous year and we had discussed his experience on a few occasions).  In the email, Paul mentioned the upcoming deadline for Fulbright applications for the 2011-2012 academic year and encouraged his colleagues in the business school to consider applying and to contact him if we had any questions.  

Previous to this time, I had contemplated possibly trying to do a Fulbright many years down the road, though it had honestly never crossed my mind to even attempt applying so early in my academic career.  But the idea intrigued me, so I emailed him back and we started a long email, phone, and eventually face-to-face dialogue about the Fulbright program, his experiences and what I could hope to experience.  Paul repeatedly said he wished he had done it much earlier in his career, so it started to seem like something that could actually be possible.  Jacque and I also talked about it extensively.  While she was not particularly excited about the idea, she said it would be OK to apply and see what happened. 

Since the application deadline was coming up so quickly, I worked hard while on our vacation to get everything pulled together and submitted before we even returned home (including personal statements, CV/Vita, recommendation letters, proposed teaching/research summer, etc.).  I figured it wouldn't hurt to apply and if things went well we would have plenty of time to decide whether or not we actually wanted to do it.  The deadline was mid-August, at which point the application materials would be reviewed by the Fulbright panel, then the U.S. State Department, then the foreign embassy and host university.  It could take more than 6 months for the application to be approved at all levels, so after I submitted the materials, we just hunkered down to wait and went about our lives.  

I got the first-level acceptance/approval letter for the Fulbright panel by the end of November.   That was a bit of a jolt to Jacque, who I think up to that point had thought there was no chance so she didn't need to worry about it.  But passing that first hurtle all of the sudden meant it was a very real possibility.  We next got a letter from the U.S. State Department around mid-December, and then came approval from the Belarusian embassy in Minsk and the host institution, Belarusian State University.  By mid-January 2011, it was all official and if I was willing to accept it I would become a Fulbright Scholar sometime during the 2011-2012 academic year.  

With the acceptance and all of the approvals came an urgency in deciding what we wanted to do and if this would actually work for our family.  By this point, Jacque was well into her pregnancy with David, so we knew we would have a young baby (in addition to our other 4 young girls), traipsing off to the far part of the globe to a strange new place where neither of us speak the language or have any experience with the culture.  We both had a long list of concerns/worries (though Jacque's list was probably longer), but we took the leap and decided to accept.  However, even though we accepted, we still had to work out the logistics with the host university and my home university before it would all be finalized and official.    

Because the Fulbright was for the 2011-2012 academic year, I had to go sometime from September 2011-August 2012, but with a young baby, we wanted to push back the date as far as possible.  The problem was that BSU typically did not have a summer term, so for a time it seemed we may be out of luck, at least for this academic year.  But after touching base with the BSU MBA coordinator, I learned that they had just implemented a summer semester for their MBA program, meaning the scheduling would actually work out quite perfectly.  The next problem was that the course I had proposed to teach is actually offered fall semester.  So I had to do a little finagling, but I finally got them to agree to switch it to summer term to accommodate my visit.  

UVU was great.  From the time I first told the university administration in January, my chair, dean, and academic VP all voiced their encouragement and support.  In the end, with me leaving for the Fulbright over the summer, it didn't impact my UVU responsibilities at all.  But if necessary, I was assured the school administration would make accommodations for me to be able to go.

With all of the details finally arranged, we decided to make the decision public in late June (though we had already told family and a few friends, in addition to people at UVU).  Jacque first told people at church, and with the cat out of the bag, I also started telling people, including a post to the family blog and a post to Facebook.  Everyone has been very nice and supportive, though we have found that most do not really understand what a Fulbright is or what this will mean for the family.  So Jacque and I have received lots of questions from friends and neighbors and we have had a lot of opportunities to try and explain it (though admittedly not particularly well).  

Now we are 10 months further down the road from the time we made the announcement public and we are only a couple weeks away from the adventure of a lifetime!