Former Fulbright scholar advocates international relations
When Chase Stoudenmire accepted a Fulbright Scholarship in 2010 to teach English in the Soviet Republic of Georgia, he had no idea how the next ten months working with Soviet high school students would change his view of diplomacy.
“I learned infinitely more than I ever could have taught,” Stoudenmire said during his lecture, “A Portrait of the Public Diplomat as a Young Man,” hosted July 19 by the Walker Institute , the Russian and European Studies Program, the Office of Fellowships and Scholar Programs and the Department of History.
Stoudenmire graduated from USC with a Bachelor of Arts in history in 2008 and is currently receiving his graduate degree in history from the University of Arkansas. He chose Georgia because of the influence of his professor at the University of Arkansas, Ketevan Mamiseishvili. Thanks to Mamiseishvili’s connections, Stoudenmire arrived to find a supportive community.
Stoudenmire originally wanted to teach at the university level, but the Fulbright committee insisted that he work with high school students. Though he was disappointed at first, he said he soon understood that the Georgian government’s primary focus was teaching English in public schools, and the U.S. wanted to support that.
The high school students had enough background in English and eagerness to learn that Stoudenmire was able to focus on context,teaching through large-scale projects, such as an English production of Beauty and the Beast and a history fair that featured each U.S. state. His “I Wish...” project asked 10th grade students to write their wishes, in English, and featured heartfelt responses like “I wish my country was as developed and independent as America.”
His students still communicate with him through Facebook as a way of practicing their English. “I’m not in Georgia anymore, but Georgia continues to stay with me,” he said.
In the beginning, Stoudenmire saw his Fulbright grant as an award, perhaps something he had earned. He said he didn’t realize until he spoke with his grandfather, a military veteran, over the phone after a month in Georgia that he wasn’t only broadening his horizons, but acting as an ambassador to the U.S.
“He told me that he was so proud of me and so proud of what I was doing for my country,” Stoudenmire said. .. He realized that his type of service, though not as dangerous as combat, reflected positively on the U.S.
Stoudenmire said he worries about the future of public diplomacy. Funding is hard to receive, and many Americans view it as foreign aid instead of something that will benefit long-term relations. He questions how the U.S. can construct its behavior to make public diplomacy an important part of the future.
“Public diplomacy is everyone’s business,” Stoudenmire said. “If we believe that we represent the calls of freedom and democracy abroad, and for the world, we have to think about that, not just in terms of how we relate to ourselves, but how we relate to others.”
Stoudenmire’s final anecdote was about the father of a teacher at the Georgian high school, a man he called “Grandpa Soviet.” Grandpa Soviet served in the Soviet armed forces in East Germany at the exact same time Stoudenmire’s father was a lieutenant in West Germany.
“These two men sat there, they would obey orders, they were trained to kill each other,” Stoudenmire said. And 25 years later, Stoudenmire was welcomed into Grandpa Soviet’s home once a month for dinner with affection, grace and warmth.
“That’s so incredibly powerful to me,” Stoudenmire said.