Students at Saint Leo University will be learning about different languages, culture and music this fall.
That type of education isn’t new for the university. But the type of educator delivering it is unprecedented in the university’s history.
(Courtesy of Saint Leo University)
Dr. Vasumathi Badrinathan will be the university’s first Fulbright Scholar in Residence. She has left her native India, where she’s taught for nearly three decades, to spend a semester educating students in her areas of expertise.
And while she’s only recently made it to Florida, she’s already impressed with what she’s seen.
“I’m delighted to be a part of this really old university with this beautiful, green campus. I’m discovering something new every day,” Badrinathan said. “I’m very, very happy to be here.”
Saint Leo is very happy to have her, too.
The school made the formal request to bring her to campus under the Fulbright program, which offers cultural exchange opportunities for students, educators and institutions. Badrinathan teaches French at Ramnarain Ruia College, University of Mumbai, and is fluent in a half-dozen languages, including several spoken in India. She’s also a vocalist of southern Indian classical music and has performed in international music festivals.
Those qualifications made her an attractive educational and cultural asset for a university looking to enhance its students’ learning experiences. And the Fulbright program offered exactly that kind of opportunity.
The Fulbright program was founded in 1946 by J. William Fulbright, a United States Senator and the longest serving chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with a tenure of nearly 16 years.
The program provides grants to send students and educators from the United States to foreign countries to learn and share cultural ideas, and it brings foreign students and educators to the United States.
The program provides 8,000 grants per year, with more than 160 countries participating. Since its inception, more than 360,000 participants have taken advantage of the opportunity to visit another country and culture.
Those statistics now include Badrinathan, who is looking forward to getting in the classroom and teaching a curriculum that includes language, culture and communication. But she isn’t bringing a rigid teaching method with her. Instead, she wants to learn about her students, and find the best ways to educate them based on how they react and interact with the curriculum.
“Flexibility is one of the cornerstones of an educator. You need to be flexible, you need to be adaptable, and you need to bear in mind that you’re dealing with human beings, after all,” she explained. “Absolutely, flexibility is the name of the game.”
For Badrinathan, that means not only sharing her personal experiences and knowledge with lessons, but also with music. She’s collaborating with the university’s music department to perform a special concert in October that will contain elements of both western and Indian music. Being entrenched in India’s culture and music as a performer enhances her ability to communicate those experiences as an educator, she said.
The teacher isn’t just here to teach. She’s also here to learn.
While Badrinathan has traveled around the world learning, teaching and performing (she earned her doctorate in French while studying in France), this is her first trip to the United States. And she expects to not only share her experiences and knowledge in the cultural exchange, but to also partake in the exchange.
“It’s going to be very enriching, because when you’re in a new scenario, you’re always open to new things,” Badrinathan said. “I think it’s going to be a great learning experience for me as well.”
Published August 19, 2015
