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The Carletonian

Alex Gibson ‘10 wins Fulbright to Argentina

<n ’10 isn’t going to a foreign country for his Fulbright scholarship. He’s going home. “My Dad’s Argentine, and I lived in Buenos Aires from 2-4 years old” he explains. Although he also strongly considered Spain, saying he “fell in love with it” while studying abroad he “decided to try something different, reconnect with my roots. I’ve been planning to go there for a long time.” Alex does not yet know what region of Argentina he will be placed into.

Alex’s internship doesn’t begin until March, giving him almost a year until he leaves. He hopes to use the time to find an internship at Minnesota Public Radio and develop contacts so he can pitch stories from Argentina. He has previously interned at a radio station in Spain, and hopes to work at an independent radio station wherever he’s stationed. “Argentina is a democracy” he explains, “but some of the [local] governments in the provinces are very authoritarian”. Working at an independent radio station will help promote civil society and free press in an environment that is sometimes very intolerant of it.

When not striking a blow for democracy, Alex will be training Argentine university students in how to teach ESL.

Alex will leave early for Argentina to visit his relatives in Buenos Aires. His program will run only eight months rather than the usual ten, so he won’t have as long to enjoy Argentina, but wants to “try to get to know the place a bit” while he is there.

On the wait list for being accepted into the program for several weeks, Alex compares being accepted into the program to getting a date-“sort of like when you ask the attractive girl to prom and she says ‘if no-one else asks’, that’s what happened to me”. He advices other potential Fulbrighters to apply early and to emphasize not what the program will do for you, but what you can do to serve the community you will be a part of as a Fulbrighter.

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