Four - count 'em, four - Fulbright Scholars from one department?
It's just another average year for German Studies. The perennial academic powerhouse will send four Boston College seniors to Germany next year, but that kind of success isn't shocking. It's expected.
"We have exactly 54 Fulbrights to Germany and Austria that have come through this department," said German Studies chairperson Michael Resler. "Last year, we actually had eight Fulbrighters from my tiny department. We have years when we don't have eight majors. It's an embarrassment of riches."
Sarah Byron, CSOM '06, who learned she'd won a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany last week, still remembers the day Resler planted the idea to apply in her head - at a summer orientation session before her freshman year.
"I walked into his office and immediately felt at home," Byron recalled. "There were Oriental rugs on the floor, books lined the wall like wallpaper, and there was classical music playing in the background. We chit-chatted for a few minutes in German, and then he told me I had to apply for a Fulbright. I cocked my head in confusion, because I hadn't heard about a Fulbright before then. That was four years ago."
Preparation for her Fulbright application wasn't all she gained from her German major, though. Byron, like many other students, says she found a home away from home through her studies.
"The German department is truly a family. There is an annual Weihnachtsfeier, or Christmas party, where all of the professors, their families, and the students are invited to come to Professor Resler's own home and we bond, catch up, and have a gift exchange," said Byron. "My professors care so much about their students. Almost every day, they tend to go out of their way for us. You couldn't have asked for a better group."
The German department's atmosphere and emphasis on excellence, Resler said, is part of how he pays back others for his own good fortune. When he was an undergraduate at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, his professors mentored him, so he feels that it is only right for him to mentor others.
"Two of my professors there took me and mentored me and said, 'You know, you need to apply for a Fulbright,'" recalled Resler. "Lo and behold, I got it, to my amazement. That's a debt that I feel I'm still paying back."
Resler does just that during the Fulbright application process by offering advice to students, writing recommendations, correcting essays, helping them prepare for interviews, and urging other professors to do the same. But he said the most important part of his work is imbuing students with a sense of confidence in themselves.
"That's kind of the secret. I tell them as freshmen, 'You can achieve big things,'" said Resler. "You may not be across the river at Harvard or down Route 9 at Wellesley, but you guys are good enough. You can do this. I think so many students don't really believe that at the beginning. It's a matter of setting high goals for themselves."
The culmination of those high goals regularly results in multiple Fulbright fellowships for German Studies students. Once-unattainable goals become an almost unfathomable reality.
"I was ecstatic. I thought, 'Wow, I have really done this,' Byron said of her reaction to winning. "At that very moment, I was so thankful for everyone who had helped me and encouraged me … Then a few days later, I found myself tearing up while I was sitting in my room, letting it all sink in for the first time." Byron said that being surrounded by Fulbright Scholars, all of whom have spoken highly of their experiences abroad, is the reason she's excited for life after graduation.
"This is money well spent," said Resler of the all-expenses-paid fellowships. "If we did more of this and paid more attention to those who come back, we might not have as much misunderstanding in the world. I really just passionately believe that."
Shawna Gallagher Vega is a staff columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at gallaghervegas@bcheights.com
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