Antioch Seattle Has Two Fulbright Scholars

Global vision is a hallmark of the two Antioch Seattle students who are Fulbright Scholars.

Franchesska Berry graduates in June from the M.A. in Education program and will head to Cairo, Egypt, as a Fulbright Scholar in January 2009. She will spend four months there, teaching and performing the African and African-American dance she fashioned into a multicultural education program - international in its reach and value - for her Antioch Seattle M.A. Ed culminating project.

She says her goal is to demonstrate the universal meaning and power of little known and unappreciated forms of artistry and heritage.

"It doesn't matter if you have a dream unless you have those who support you in it," says Berry, whose style integrates her background in Western (ballet, modern and jazz), West African, Brazilian, Caribbean and Cuban dance.

Fulbright Scholar James Sasongko is from Surabaya, Indonesia, and says he hopes to work on an international level to facilitate change in organizations. It was experiential learning that drew Sasongko to Antioch Seattle's Center for Creative Change and the Organizational Psychology program.

By developing the ability to learn from their own practical experience, Antioch's Center for Creative Change students open up to new ways of knowing - not derived from books or experts - but from their own lives, work, communities and families. Learning from experience allows students to learn from action, and to learn for action.

"The way some professors facilitate class is fascinating in how it stimulates students to push the limits of their capacity. The faculty here is very challenging. After several courses, I realize I can do what I never thought I could," he says.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the prestigious Fulbright programs are the largest international exchange for students, scholars and professionals.

Janet Tallman is the Fulbright program adviser on the Antioch Seattle campus and a former Fulbright herself. For more information about the program, contact her at jtallman@antiochseattle.edu.