Chase Stoudenmire, right, a former student of Ketevan Mamiseishvili, will go to her home country of Georgia later this year on a Fulbright grant.
Professors are usually pretty happy when a student wants to follow in their footsteps. Ketevan Mamiseishvili was delighted to learn one of her students had decided to retrace her footsteps to work and study in the Republic of Georgia.
When one of Mamiseishvili’s students in the higher education program at the University of Arkansas talked to her about applying for a Fulbright grant to work and study abroad, she threw out the former Soviet Socialist Republic where she grew up as a possible destination.
Chase Stoudenmire learned in April that he would receive a Fulbright U.S. Student Grant. He leaves next month for four days of pre-departure orientation in Washington, D.C., to prepare for his stay in the Republic of Georgia. His grant period covers October through July 2011. The South Carolina native completed a master’s degree in higher education this spring.
“I was really joking,” Mamiseishvili said about her suggestion. “I didn’t push him. Clearly, this is his idea now. Personally, I am really proud of him. Georgia is not a popular destination for students who want to study abroad. A lot of students choose countries that are not very different from the United States.”
It’s not unusual for Stoudenmire to think outside the box, said his professor, who described him as curious about the world.
“I think this is very brave of him for 10 months to go to a country where he doesn’t speak the language, that is just a dot on the map to him,” said Mamiseishvili, whose students call her Dr. Kate. “I might even be the only person he has met from my country.”
According to Stoudenmire, she is.
Stoudenmire doesn’t know yet where he will live in Georgia on the English teaching assistantship. Each country that participates in the Fulbright program has its own criteria including language requirements. Georgia does not require students coming there to speak Georgian. More than 90 percent of the world’s Georgian-speaking population lives in Georgia, Stoudenmire said.
Stoudenmire recently completed an internship for academic credit at the Spring International Language Center on campus, teaching English to students from all over the world who are preparing to enroll at the university. The job presented a different set of challenges than he will encounter in Georgia, he said, because of the wide range of languages and backgrounds of the Spring International students. “In Georgia, I will be the person living outside of his culture. I will be the one person who doesn’t speak the local language. The difficulties of teaching in the classroom will likely pale in comparison to the challenges of getting by the other 20 hours of the day.”
Mamiseishvili supervised Stoudenmire during the internship.
“He wrote a reflective essay about how the experience changed his perspective,” she said.
“It helped me develop an awareness of my ignorance,” Stoudenmire laughed.
He decided to apply for the Fulbright grant because of the unique opportunity it provides.
“I have a bad habit of deliberately getting myself in over my head, but it forces me to grow and develop in ways that are invaluable. Having spent my entire life in the United States, my goal for the next year is to try to unlearn everything I think I know.”
GEORGIAN PERSPECTIVE
Since applying for the grant, Stoudenmire has done some homework on Georgia.
“He stopped by my office with four books about Georgia that I didn’t know existed, and he found a dissertation about the 2003 Rose Revolution,” Mamiseishvili said. “He tied the research he was doing with a project required in another class he was taking about Russian history. He has clearly become knowledgeable about the country’s history and traditions.”
Mamiseishvili can provide the perspective of a student coming to the United States to study, which for Georgians was considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“No matter how good your life is, you don’t miss this opportunity,” she recalled. “I didn’t have clear objectives of why I wanted to go to the United States, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Now, it is not quite as rare but most families still cannot afford it. Even for middle-class families, the student must have a scholarship to go.”
She had an English language and literature degree from Kutaisi State University in Georgia and intended to teach English. However, after she came to America to study, a course in higher education leadership at the University of Missouri changed her career plans
“I wanted to have a few years to practice speaking English, to become a fluent speaker, rather than just having book knowledge,” Mamiseishvili said. “I saw in the catalog a course on the history of higher education and I thought it would be nice to learn about the educational system.
“I got hooked,” she continued. “It was awesome. The next semester, I took only one class in English, and the next year I switched to higher education. I loved it.”
She decided to stay in the United States after completing master’s and doctoral degrees at Missouri because of her desire to teach on a university faculty. If she returned to Georgia, most likely she would have to take a position in the university administration or the Ministry of Education.
Advanced cell phone technology and services such as Skype, a software application that allows users to make free video and voice calls over the Internet, have made Georgia seem less far away in the years since she left her home, Mamiseishvili said.
“Skype is always on,” she said. “I talk to my parents and my nieces usually every day. I don’t realize the distance as much now, and I feel like I am a part of their lives.”
HISTORICAL TIES
Stoudenmire’s interest in history also attracted him to the Fulbright program. He has an undergraduate degree in history from the University of South Carolina and is now a graduate student in the history department in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. While in Georgia, he plans to conduct an independent research project looking at the civic behavior of Georgian students who studied abroad in the United States and returned home.
“Common citizens have played a significant role in the political history of Georgia over the past two decades, both in the break from the Soviet Union and the largely peaceful political evolution that has taken place since,” Stoudenmire said. “The country can be seen as a model for others in the region and in the world who are interested in bringing democracy upon themselves. Much of the older population grew up in an environment where there was scarce opportunity for self-determination, but the younger generation has witnessed the progressive development of a democracy. I’m interested in development of the productive, educated citizens necessary to sustain a democracy, the creation of which is an explicit purpose of American higher education. I’m interested in seeing how Georgians’ experiences in the United States color their civic attitudes and behaviors when they go home.”
He’s looking forward to studying the process by which people bring democracy to themselves in what he suggested may be, considering the challenges they have faced, the most successful democratized post-Soviet state.
“I think it will be interesting to learn about their growing pains,” he said.
After the Fulbright experience is over, Stoudenmire has been nominated for two years of service in Eastern Europe with the Peace Corps. Eventually, he would like to work at a university as a faculty member in education and the applied humanities.
Stoudenmire is the second student in the College of Education and Health Professions to receive a Fulbright grant in the past three years. Another student in the higher education master’s program, Bryan Winzer of Siloam Springs, received a Fulbright grant to teach in Hong Kong.
“It has a special feeling to be a Fulbrighter coming from J. William Fulbright’s home institution,” Stoudenmire said. “It is one of the most comprehensive, prestigious international exchange programs in the world, and although others may not know Fulbright’s connection to the University of Arkansas, it is important to us. His papers are here.”
The former U.S. senator from Arkansas also served as president of the university from 1939 to 1941.
Mamiseishvili did not anticipate the recent turn of events.
“Who would have thought I would come to Arkansas from Georgia and one of my students would be going to Georgia?” she mused. “I think Chase will have fun in my country. The people are very relaxed, although they work hard, and they are extremely hospitable. They love guests. It will be a life-changing experience for Chase. Georgians have a proud history and culture. They have always had to fight for their survival, and they are proud to have maintained their culture and language over many centuries of invasions. I think they will appreciate that Chase has learned about our history and traditions.”
