Advice about Taking a Gap Year for Fulbright ETA

[squidtown]

Hello all,

 

I'm currently facing a dilemma. I have been accepted to a handful of master + certification programs that I would love to attend and have provided me with great funding/scholarship offers, and I have just found out that I have been chosen for a Fulbright ETA grant for next year. The problem is that so far, all of the programs have indicated that I would either need to re-apply entirely or would need to re-apply for funding if I took a year off to do the Fulbright. Right now I'm really concerned about risking these great funding offers (especially because the Fulbright dates might prevent me from immediately going on to attend these programs, which start in the summer).

 

For this reason, I'm considering re-applying for the Fulbright for next year (after these 12- to 16-month programs would be over), but I'm worried that this would present an obstacle for starting my teaching career. Does anybody have any experience with taking a gap year between completing certification and beginning teaching? Would it be difficult to have that break during the time when you would normally be transitioning from the masters program to a job? If I came back from the Fulbright at the end of June or beginning of July, do you think that most schools would have already hired their new teachers for the next school year?

 

Thanks for your help!

Edited March 25, 2015 by squidtown

[TravelingTeacher]

Hi squidtown,

 

I just made a reply in the Fulbright thread to your questions on this topic. I'm going to sum up what I said there in case anybody else is looking at this with similar questions. As somebody who is currently doing a MA + teacher cert. program and applying to Fulbright, I would HIGHLY recommend that you do Fulbright this year. I hugely regret not applying to Fulbright last year when I was graduating from undergrad. Some areas do hire in June/July, but you are much better off starting your application process earlier. Also, as I explained in the thread, teacher cert programs provide you with a very specific pre-professional training towards teaching in the US context, and it might be difficult for you to transition into teaching abroad and then transition back into the US context after one year. I understand how the thought of possibly losing funding is terrifying--the majority of students in my program are unfunded--but I think having the ETA on your resume will make you even more qualified for your grad programs and lead to even more funding at the same or other programs.

 

Hope this helps!

[squidtown]

Again, thanks so much. This is hugely helpful.