As a first generation college student, I am no stranger to how difficult navigating university and higher education can be. Often the balance between part time jobs, research, teaching assistant positions, and planning for the future can be overwhelming. It can feel like the world has set you up for failure and it wasn’t until I was awarded a Fulbright fellowship that I truly felt like I could have a career in Astronomy.
I started my studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an Aerospace Engineer. I had always been fascinated by space and wanted to understand how it grew and evolved. It wasn’t until the end of my second year, however, that I learned my current major would never get me to the kind of research I wanted to do. In a very stressful couple of months and after talking with many professors, I switched majors to Applied Physics. During this entire time I worked multiple part time jobs, did research, and was a TA for our department’s astronomy courses. You can imagine I existed on very little sleep. Add on-top of that that our university impressed upon us the value of doing study abroad.
However, often the accessibility of these opportunities are overlooked. I quickly learned any dreams I had of doing research abroad were out of my reach because I could not afford the additional costs of doing a semester abroad. This is, unfortunately, the case for many low-income students. The lack of accessible opportunities continues to hurt at need students as I experienced myself. As I neared the end of my undergraduate studies, I was unsure how to continue with my career. My grades were not as impressive as my classmates and due to transferring into physics I was behind on coursework. I ultimately decided to stay on at my undergraduate university to complete a 5 year program to get a master’s in astronomy but even that was just a play for time because I didn’t know what to do next. I had wanted to get a Ph.D. for years but like many low-income students my grades, lack of internships or other opportunities resulted in my chances of not only being able to afford a PhD program in the U.S. but also to even get accepted one was astronomically low.
I had begun to doubt my ability to work in my dream field at all. I had resigned to not pursue my studies further and find any job I could. It was during this very uncertain time that my student Dean introduced me to the Fulbright program and when I was awarded my fellowship it may sound dramatic to say, but it’s true, that it changed my entire life.
I know I do not need to impress on this audience the importance and value of the Fulbright program, nevertheless the Fulbright program provides a path forward for students who may not have had opportunities to work internationally or study abroad. It is a fundamental program that helps to bridge the gap between opportunity and accessibility and opens doors to many students. It is a vital program not only for encouraging international collaboration but also for producing groundbreaking science.
For me, my fellowship bridged the gap between myself and my peers and for the first time I no longer felt like I was playing catch up. During my Fulbright I was provided the opportunity to work with researchers at Jagiellonian University on the study of galaxies and their evolutions through different phases of their life. I got to not only work with researchers across Poland but also across the world, working with Astronomers in Italy, Japan, and Germany, building connections that would continue to help my research flourish. During my Fulbright fellowship I gained confidence in my ability as a researcher and further developed my work and expertise. And ultimately I was offered the opportunity to stay on as a Ph.D. candidate with that lab. One opportunity, the Fulbright fellowship led to me getting my PhD, a postdoc, and to my current position working as an Astrophysicist.
Recently I speaking to students at my undergraduate university in New York and I was asked what helped me stay in research when so many are leaving academia for non science related careers. I thought of the different things that made that path easier and harder for me and at the end of the day the thing that has made the most difference has been people. From my Student Dean who reviewed my Fulbright application, to Professor Ostrawski at Jagiellonian university who helped connect me to my future phd advisor Professor Stawarz and the Fulbright commission who has kept me involved in the community even after my fellowship ended. often as scientists we can become very consumed by our own goals so much so that we forget the most fundamental tool in science is collaboration.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel the world and meet people from a variety of cultures. Working with them has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life and it has enriched my research and career. Maintaining these connections between countries is vital to continuously improve our understanding of the world around us. In astronomy we would not have space missions or telescopes if it was not for our international partnerships.
In fact missions like the James Webb Space Telescope would not have been possible without the help of it’s international partners. In addition to the United States, 13 countries were involved in building the Webb telescope including member states of the European and Canadian Space Agencies.
In my own work I have not had a single project that did not include a diverse set of scientists. Those connections whether it’s from Fulbright, school, conferences, or even an event like this one, these connections can make all the difference when you’re working on a problem. I’ve gained insight on my work from researchers who I’ve only met once at a poster session in Japan. Questions others have asked during talks have sparked entire research papers. I truly believe that good science dies when we try to work in a vacuum.
I stand here today an Astrophysicist working with a large international consortium of collaborators working on a variety of scientific projects. All of which would not have been possible had it not been for the opportunities that my Fulbright Fellowship provided me. I am eternally grateful for the time I spent in Poland and for the path it has led me down and I hope that my fellow alumni and cohort feel the same.
Emily Kosmaczewski is a 2017-18 Fulbright US Student Researcher alumna at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.