Emily Craig
Name: Emily Craig
Major(s): Marine Science, Minor in Chemistry
Year in school: Post-graduate
Scholarship received: Fulbright Study/Research Award, Sri Lanka
Year received: 2019
General Questions:
How did you first hear about this scholarship?
I was in a club meeting in the Memorial Union, and I noticed an info session with the Office of Major Scholarships happening across the hall from where we were meeting. I asked a friend of mine about the meeting and she told me that it was a Fulbright Awards meeting. After that, I checked out the Fulbright Awards online and reached out to Nives.
Do you remember where you were when you found out you had received the scholarship? If so, where? Tell us the story!
This is such a funny question, because I was actually in the bathroom when I received the email. It came in an email chain from the University of Maine, so I was very confused at first about who had actually sent me the email. Once I found out that it was from the Fulbright Awards, and that I had received the award, I was really excited.
Did you travel for/because of this scholarship? If so, where?
I traveled to Sri Lanka for this scholarship, and I spent five months there working in a lab at the University of Ruhuna, in Matara Sri Lanka. I was conducting experiments with zebrafish, and I had such a difficult time importing the fish to the country. I actually spent some time talking to the company that supplies most of the fish for Petco, which was interesting. My goal with the zebrafish was to work with students at the university to help them get comfortable working with zebrafish and conducting scientific experiments with them. It’s quite neat because even though Covid-19 forced me to leave early, the project still exists at the university, and there are still students working on the project to this day. It’s nice to hear from them and learn about how the research is progressing even though I’m not there anymore.
If you were unable to travel, how did your program adapt to the pandemic-related changes?
This was actually a really interesting portion of the experience for me. I was only able to spend five months out of the nine months in Sri Lanka before I had to leave because of Covid-19. The first five months were full of making new friends, starting research, and really getting comfortable in this new environment. I was just starting to get into a routine, when the Department of State suspended all of their overseas programs due to Covid-19. My cohort was given 3 days to pack up and leave the country. I was definitely overwhelmed, and upset because I was not even able to say goodbye to all of the friends I made while at the University. I also didn’t fully realize that when I left Sri Lanka, I was also losing my job. When I returned to America I was pretty much unemployed, and I hadn’t gotten into graduate school yet. I was just back in the United States in the Spring without any plans, so that was also really stressful. Luckily I got rehired at the University of Maine in order to continue some of the research I was doing in Sri Lanka, in Dr. Jayasundara’s lab.
What was your favorite aspect of the scholarship experience? (Ex. travel, experiences, learning a new language, research opportunities, etc.)
While I was in Sri Lanka, I was studying chronic kidney disease, which is a kidney disease that a large portion of Sri Lankan farmers are developing. No researchers have been able to identify where the disease is coming from, but it has been ongoing for more than a decade now. The university that I was working with was studying the possibility that the disease was caused by something in the drinking water that these farmers were consuming. That was why we were using zebrafish to conduct the research. We would put the zebrafish in freshwater, the same water that the farmers were drinking, and we could tell after a period of time whether or not there was an effect on their kidneys.
We also worked in schools, screening school-aged children for evidence of the disease in their kidneys. We would set up a testing site in the schools, and the children were given a cup to pee in the day before. The next day they brought their cups back to us and we were able to test for a variety of things, including the potential effect of the water on the health of their kidneys. The farmers that are coming down with the disease are generally in their mid-forties, so we wanted to see if the kidneys of individuals in this area were being impacted over a long period of time. The children did not have as many issues with their kidneys as the older adults, but there was evidence that kidney damage could occur over a longer period of time. It was definitely a very difficult part of this work for me, because it was hard to see the children living in these tough conditions.
What did you learn during the application process?
I learned how to write a grant, which was really cool. The statement of grant purpose that you write for the Fulbright is more or less a “baby grant”, so it was nice to work on that and learn more about the process. I plan to be in academia for a while, so it was good to be able to practice that skill. I also learned how to articulate why I’m the best candidate for an opportunity. The last time I can remember writing an application before the Fulbright was when I applied to colleges for my undergraduate degree. Working on the application for Fulbright gave me a chance to revisit those skills and find ways to better advocate for my ability to complete projects and truly be the best possible applicant. It was also really neat to organize and outline a full experiment from start to finish. Once I arrived in Sri Lanka, Fulbright seemed more interested in my full experience than in the science of my experiment, but the process of putting together and outlining the full experiment was really beneficial for me.
How did you incorporate your personal skills/outside interests/other elements that were not the application’s focus into your application?
What I remember doing is focusing on the community outreach section of the application, and using a lot of examples from clubs that I have been in. I talked about my involvement with citizen science and scientific leadership, and the ways that those have helped me engage with my community at home. I feel like that transferred well into the work that I wanted to do in Sri Lanka, and I also wanted to be sure that I could find a way to feel at home in another country and community. I ended up living with two Sri Lankan girls who were my age, and we became fast friends, which was one of my favorite parts of my trip.
Do you think that receiving this scholarship affects or will affect your future academic and/or career goals?
Yeah, definitely! The scholarship has an alumni network, but I haven’t quite been able to find them yet. So that’s there if I can ever use it! Along with that, receiving this scholarship shows employers that you have the ability to work independently and complete projects. I don’t have a Master’s degree, but I was able to get into Duke’s Environmental science Ph.D. program because I was able to show that I received this scholarship to do independent work in a foreign country. It’s kind of like a vote of confidence in your ability to design and complete a research project. You also learn a lot about yourself and your work. I wish I could do a Fulbright again because I learned so much the first time that I really feel like the second time would be even better.
What advice do you have for others who may be interested in applying for this scholarship?
Honestly, it helped me very much that my advisor at UMaine knew the individual in Sri Lanka that I was working with. I had been able to talk a lot with them before I even traveled to Sri Lanka, so that really helped me to get established within the university and the lab that I was working in. I was also living with a girl in Sri Lanka who had spent three months working on a project in Maine, so we already knew each other. I felt like I wasn’t going somewhere totally alone, and having these premade connections really enhanced my experience, because I didn’t feel like an outsider and I felt very welcomed. If you’re applying for a Fulbright, I really recommend doing a lot of research about where you’re going and who you’re going to be working with, so that you can create those connections beforehand. It’s obviously really hard to know whether you’ll get the scholarship or not, but having those connections can sometimes even set you up for other opportunities even if you don’t receive the Fulbright.