Fulbright orientation and presentation dinner

Just returned from the orientation and presentation dinner for the 2010 Australian Fulbright scholars in Melbourne. I feel deeply privileged and humbled - and so excited! - to be among this group of 25 amazing people who are featured on the Australian-American Fulbright Commisssion website.

The 2010 cohort includes Senior Scholars, Professional Scholars, Postdoctoral and Postgraduate Scholars - and one Scholar in Residence! 

 My colleagues are all highly talented, fascinating people from a wide range of fields: medicine, public heath, law, idigenous community development, VET, marine ecology, physics, maths, informatics, DNA sequencing, astronautical engineering, sustainable energy, agriculture - with the humanities nicely represented by a poet, a muso and a historian. All were generous in sharing their stories and their richly varied personal, professional and research experiences, their enthusiasms, their hopes for Fulbright and beyond ...

The Fulbright orientation was really inspiring and helpful. Everyone - current and previous scholars, the Fulbright Commission team and board members - are all so friendly and encouraging. I experienced a great sense of mutual respect and support that underpins the notion of the 'Fulbright family'.

The dinner was amazing, at the National Gallery of Victoria under the stained glass ceiling ...

The dinner was attended by heaps of people, including senior academics, previous Fulbright scholars, the US amabassador, and US Fulbright scholars currently based in Aus.
I was delighted that the QUT Vice Chancellor Prof Peter Coldrake was there - he seemed chuffed to have 3 QUT Fulbright scholars this year! Craig Costello (PhD student, cryptography), Sarah Holland-Batt (poet, critic and lecturer in creative writing) and mysef (lecturer/researcher).
It was also lovely to have my son Mark's company at the dinner, representing our family since sadly my husband David was unable to attend ...

During the orientation I came to realise that scholar in residence is a pretty rare breed among Australian Fulbrights. This year I am the only one. It seems that the majority of the 2010 cohort are dedicated researchers, while I'll be focusing on (informed) learning and teaching, whilst hopefully establishing some worthwhile research opportunities. It's nice, if daunting, to be a little different :-)

While in Melbourne I met several people who raved about Denver and the surrounding area. I'm even more excited now!