On December 12, the Information Resource Center (IRC) at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest hosted a digital video conference on U.S. study opportunities, co-presented by Katherine Scodova, the EducationUSA Regional Educational Advising Coordinator for Europe and Eurasia, on a two-day visit to Bucharest, and the FEAC-EducationUSA adviser.

Romanian high school students joined us live from the American Corners in Bacău and Craiova, keen to learn more about the process of applying to U.S. universities and financial aid opportunities. We took the opportunity to tell the students about the ways the Fulbright Educational Advising Center can help them throughout the application process and the newly launched competition for the EducationUSA Opportunity Funds program. The last part of the presentation was allotted to the Q&A section, in which participants asked questions on campus life, particular majors, as well as graduate study opportunities.

Many thanks to the IRC and American Corner coordinators for their kind support in organizing and promoting the event!

On December 11, the EdUSA-affiliated Fulbright Educational Advising Center hosted a workshop titled “Acing Your Admission Interview”, coordinated by Fulbright ETA and FEAC friend Bridget Kelly. Bridget shared practical tips on how to approach with maximum confidence the interview some U.S. universities require as part of the admission process, providing examples of commonly asked questions and encouraging participants to do some critical reflection well in advance, to be able to answer those questions confidently and ask their own questions, highlighting their genuine interest in a particular school.
While discussion was encouraged throughout the workshop, at the end the participants, mainly 10th and 11th graders from some of the top Bucharest high schools, had a chance to ask questions on topics ranging from how to avoid repetitiveness to examples of unusual questions that might come up during an interview.

Sophia Henry, ETA Fulbright Lecturer at the West University in Timisoara, recently participated in a conference organized in Oradea: “From December 8-9, 2017 I participated in the "Thinking Outside the Box: American Studies Goes West" conference, a joint venture between the West University of Timişoara American Studies MA Program and Partium Christian University, hosted in Oradea, Romania. It was a wonderful chance to see my students from UVT present on a wide variety of topics related to American Culture, and I even learned a few new things too!

I closed out the conference with my talk, 'Between Two Worlds,' which centered on my experience as a Fulbright ETA in Romania. The conference was a wonderful chance to exchange ideas and discourse between our two universities, as well as encourage the Romanian Masters students to apply for a Fulbright grant to study in United States themselves!”

The second representation of the play "Looking for Home", directed by Fulbright Scholar Domnica Rădulescu and starring BA & MA students within the American Studies Program at the University of Bucharest, will take place on Wednesday, December 20, from 18:30, at the National University of Theatre and Film "I.L. Caragiale", room Ileana Berlogea.

The play consists in a collage of scenes from works by Caryl Churchill, Domnica Rădulescu, Saviana Stănescu, Heather Raffo and Aglaja Veteranyi, all revolving around the themes of home/homelessness, exile and belonging, ever more topical in the context of the current refugee crisis.