by Lucha Ramey, Media Relations Director

Two of St.Mary's own have earned the nickname of "Fulbrighters" – a lighthearted nickname for a prestigious achievement. The competitive Fulbright Scholarship is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. This year, a professor and a student travel to opposite ends of the earth in search of mutual understanding between cultures.

Native Son
It is one thing to teach a language, but quite another to teach a culture.Mark Lokensgard, Ph.D., chair of the Languages Department, says you can't do one without the other.

That's the approach he used when he started the Portuguese program 10 years ago – one of few in the country – at St. Mary's. He incorporates Portuguese literature and cinema into the classroom to expose American students to the values, social structures, struggles and history of Portuguese-speaking countries.

Lokensgard first visited Brazil while working with a public health program in Paraguay the summer before his freshman year at Stanford University. He spoke fluent Spanish, but to his amazement it was of no use in Brazil where Portuguese is the official language. Counting only native speakers, Portuguese is the world's sixth most widely spoken language. Lusophone, or Portuguese-speaking, nations also include countries like Angola and Mozambique. After that seminal trip, he became enamored with learning as much as he could about Brazil, even earning a double degree in English and Brazilian Literature from Stanford.

Lokensgard went on to get his doctorate in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from Brown University. He has since dedicated his academic career to immersing himself in the Lusophone culture so he might impart its beauty and complexity to American students.

The tables will turn, however, next spring when Lokensgard travels to São Paulo, Brazil, to teach Brazilians about American culture. On a Fulbright Lecturing Award, Lokensgard will teach American Studies at the Center for American Studies at the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation. His goal is to use American literature and cinema to illustrate the American justice system and Texas' cowboy image.

For the first time, Lokensgard will become the Native Son. Along with this Richard Wright novel, Lokensgard will use a variety of books including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas, and movies like Twelve Angry Men and Friday Night Lights, to delve below the surface of the America with which many Brazilians are already familiar.

"I'm interested in learning what happens when you teach about your native culture," explains Lokensgard. "What are the advantages and the pitfalls?" he asks.

Through his selections, Lokensgard will introduce his Brazilian students to American social structures and culture, such as race-based discrimination and the concept of a jury of your peers. Both are foreign concepts in Brazilian culture; discrimination is typically based on socioeconomic lines, not the color of one's skin in Brazil. In addition, judges make the decisions in the Brazilian courts, not juries. Lokensgard will also explore how and why Texas has become America's face to the world.

"Brazilians already know a lot about America, the people and our culture," Lokensgard says. But he hopes his courses will probe deeper. On his Fulbright Lecturing Award he hopes to answer the question: will Brazilian students' pre-existing impressions about Americans change or be enhanced? The answer, Lokensgard says, will help him when he returns to teaching students at St. Mary's.

Foreign Service not a Foreign Concept to Alums
The prestigious Fulbright is not just for professors – scholarships are also awarded to students.

Recently, international relations and economics alumna Vanessa Colón (B.A. '09) became the first St. Mary's student to be awarded a Fulbright Scholarship.

Colón has been meticulously planning the next six years of her career since her commencement this past May. In the spring of 2010, she will teach English to high school students in Malaysia – an experience that will help prepare her for a career in the Foreign Service, joining the ranks of 30 plus St. Mary's alumni who have become Foreign Service officers.

She was also named a fellow in the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, which sends her to Capitol Hill, enrolls her in graduate school, places her in an internship with an American embassy, and gives her a job in the State Department. "St. Mary's gave me a sense of service and giving back," she explains. "Working for the State Department, I'd be traveling and helping others." Colón is just the second St. Mary's student to receive the Rangel Fellowship.

At the beginning of this summer, Colón interned for Congressman José E. Serrano, D-N.Y. in Washington, D.C., as part of her fellowship. There she attended hearings and briefings on issues ranging from healthcare reform to the Iranian elections.

The Fellowship will expose Colón to the world of politics, experience she needs to become a well rounded and well informed Foreign Service officer. But it will also cover the majority of the cost to attend graduate school at Syracuse University while she pursues a master's in public administration and international relations.

Colón started classes this summer at Syracuse and will take a "break" from January to August in 2010 to conduct her Fulbright. After she returns from Malaysia and fulfills the remainder of her Rangel Fellowship commitments, Colón will work for the State Department for at least three years.

"Working for the State Department is my dream job," says Colón, and she plans on staying with the department past her required three years.