Irina Lutsenko

My fellow Fulbrighter and a wonderful English teacher Maria Merziapova , when she moved to Moscow was so appalled by the mess that is going on in language schools that she is thinking of going freelance. I’ve been self-employed for several years now, so Maria kept interrogating me about this career path. I decided to take it two steps further: to address her questions and fears in a public post and to invite my amazing colleague Sandra Slivinskaya to join me. Sandra and I wrote our answers completely independently to provide two perspectives. Part 1. My questions. 1. How did you make the decision to leave a steady job and work on your own? Irina I didn't really make this decision. It was a series of small decisions. It always made more sense financially to have my own students rather than work for someone else. At one point I had a full schedule as a self-employed teacher and didn’t need a school. Sandra Well, first of all, after my graduation as a linguist-interpreter

Aspiring Fulbrighters have recently received good tidings that they have made it to the second round, the most important and stressful part of which is the interview. So I've decided to put together a list of the most helpful interview tips and asked my fellow Fulbrighter Maria Merziapova to join me. We wrote our top tips completely independently so that you could have two different perspectives. Top tips by Irina Lutsenko (Fulbright FLTA, 2015-2016, University of New Haven, Connecticut) #1 Be ready to talk about your application, job/studies, program participation, and plans for the future. To be able to do that: - Read your application again. Chances are you wrote it 3-5 months ago. Trying to remember what you wrote during the interview is a bad idea. - Talk to Fulbright alumni or watch/read about their experience. You will get a better understanding of what the interviewers might be looking for. - Google typical university or even job application questions. T