Ally Glasford (2020) of Cedarburg, WI enrolled at the University of Minnesota in 2016 and graduated with a double major in Global Studies and Italian Studies, and a minor in Sustainability Studies. She spent multiple years working at the Concordia Language Villages in their Italian camp, Lago del Bosco. During college, she studied abroad in Italy at the Università di Bologna tutoring middle school students in English. She spent a year as an academic coach with City of Lakes AmeriCorps before spending 2021-22 as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Italy. She currently works as the Assistant Director of Les Aspin Center for Government, supporting students from Marquette University during their study away program in Washington, D.C.
2020 grad Ally Glasford (front row, second from left) and her students in Tortolì, Sardinia
What scholarships did you apply for and what did they allow you to do?
I applied for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant position and spent the 2021-22 school year in Tortolì, Sardinia, Italy where I assisted English teachers in their high school classrooms. I also tutored elementary students and taught an optional preparatory class for Cambridge English exams. Outside the classroom, I was able to immerse myself in local traditions and become a part of the community in my host location.
What did you learn about yourself in the application process? What particular skills or knowledge did you develop? How has the experience continued to be valuable? // What was your specific application process for Fulbright like for you? When did you first hear about Fulbright/want to apply for it? What did you learn from the process?
I knew the Fulbright was this prestigious thing that seemed unattainable for me as a Midwestern student at a big state school. I thought it was something for people who really stood out – and while I excelled and loved being in the classroom, I was not someone who stood out. I wanted to be in the background. Then, in my junior year, I studied the whole year at the University of Bologna through the Bologna Consortium Studies Program (BCSP), which was an immersive, phenomenal experience. I had studied Italian for about two years, and I was just coming off my first summer teaching at Concordia Language Villages’ Lago del Bosco. I loved being in Italy, I loved how student centered the city is, and I loved any chance to speak Italian. It was all the little things that I was able to do by using the language and understanding the culture and getting to meet new people.
Danielle Dadras of Global Studies sent out an email of opportunities including Fulbright, so I sent an email to Tim at ONIS asking about the Fulbright application and whether other UMN students had ever successfully received a grant to Italy. The process of writing and revising my essays was a big lesson in asking others for help, which made the whole process a little less scary. My English major friend helped me immensely and assisted me narrowing down my five page draft to the one page requirement. The application process showed me that I can sit down and do the hard thing (writing reflectively on my experiences and future desires) while also showing me that there were so many people who were able to see my potential and believed in me enough to help me chase my dreams. My friends, family, ONIS, and people I had met in previous jobs, all were cheering me on as I wrote and revised my essays. I’m also so thankful for my Italian professors within the French & Italian Department and at BCSP that inspired me and encouraged me to develop my language skills, and who, among others, wrote convincing and honest recommendations on my behalf for the application.
While abroad, what challenges did you face and how did you respond to those challenges? What was the most fulfilling part of your experience?
Tortolì is a town of about 10,000 inhabitants on an island in Southern Italy, which was a very different environment to my previous experience with Italy. It’s a very tight knit community, and the southern Italian dialect was totally different from the Italian I had studied in classrooms. For instance, I never had issues with understanding signs during studying abroad, but even street signs were in the Sardinian dialect! COVID had hit Italy really hard, so a lot of the community events or festivals were still closed. Despite all these challenges, I am even more proud and fond of the experience and relationships I was able to carve out for myself. I had people, who felt like family, to spend holidays with and when I cried about leaving behind at the end of the year. Some of my closest friends ended up being the 50 year old women who also taught at my school with whom I would go for hikes, swims and even wild asparagus picking. Even learning Sardinian slang and phrases was fun because it reminded me that there is always more to learn. Now, it’s so fun to drop a random Sardinian word in conversation with my Italian speaking friends. I was even able to bring some Sardinian culture, history and food to my students at Lago del Bosco.
Ally with teaching mentor and hiking partner Mara at Su Sirboni
How did being awarded a scholarship change your academic and/or professional development? What other opportunities has it opened for you?
I definitely didn’t have a linear progression in my academic career. I took the classes that interested me, which led me to being a Global Studies major because it was the culmination of what I found interesting across disciplines. I wasn’t planning to be a double major, but since I took all my classes in Italian during my year in Bologna, all those classes ended up counting towards that major. I was also a Sustainability Studies minor, so the flexibility of being able to do what was interesting to me was important. And that’s how I fell into Fulbright too. I wanted to be in Italy again, and I was interested in learning more about a different subsection of the country and people. I did a gap year of service with AmeriCorps when I didn’t know what to do in the midst of 2020 because it seemed like a good fit because it shared a similar value and mission of helping others. During my year in Italy, I have fond memories of informal mentoring, 1 on 1 work with students, and really established the core of student mentorship in my career. My career fell into place bit by bit, combining my love for education, helping students on an individual level, and getting to advocate for experiential learning programs within a university. I really wanted to be in a career that reciprocated all the support I had gotten throughout my own undergraduate and postgraduate career.
What are you working on now? What was your trajectory after your Fulbright experience and how do you speak about the experience professionally?
I work for the Les Aspin Center for Government, which is Marquette University’s study away campus in Washington D.C. Our students come and live in D.C. while interning at various offices and departments. Originally, I was hired specifically to focus on student life and student experience, which made a lot of sense with my background with Concordia Language Villages and Fulbright. During Fulbright, I was always thinking about how students could take their English learning in the classroom and make connections with it outside of the classroom. Now, being part of the process where students are outside their comfort zone in a new place and self-reflecting is really rewarding. Once our students apply and are accepted to our study away program, they work with me to secure an internship, and I work with various contacts across the city and match students’ interests and goals with an office that can support and spark some curiosity to help them in their future.
What do you do to unwind in your free time?
I love being outside, going for walks, and attending the various cool events in the Washington D.C. area. D.C. has great free museums and different embassies that will put on events and attract all sorts of interesting people. I also have continued the Italian love language of cooking good food for loved ones and finding any opportunity to enjoy a home cooked meal together with friends.
Is there anything you wish someone had told you at the beginning of your college career? What advice do you have for those interested in the scholarship process?
Enjoy your four years of college! Make relationships with professors and go to their office hours. Professors care about you and want to help you. They got into academia and teaching because they like working with, advising, and talking to students. When you’re an undergrad student, don’t be afraid to go for those unconventional temporary jobs because you’ll have the rest of your life to work in a career with a traditional 9-5. Working at Lago del Bosco, waitressing – all of those different opportunities in my life led me to meet people that came from different backgrounds and were pursuing different goals than myself. I am thankful for all those people, because they helped me think and realize what I actually wanted for my future.