Patna: Bringing laurel to Bihar and her community, Zeeshan Ali has won Fulbright Fellowship from the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF). She will be the first Muslim girl from Bihar to have been awarded the prestigious fellowship.
“I was quite surprised when the news was broken on me. I really feel honored. I am happy beyond bounds,†says Zeeshan, Patna University Ph.D. student, talking to TwoCircles.net.
Zeeshan Ali
Originally from Pinjrawan town in Arwal district in the state, Zeeshan has got post-matric education in Patna. She did I.Sc. in 2002 from Magadh Mahila College, Patna’s esteemed women college. She did graduation (English Hons) in 2005 from the same college. She got Masters degree in the subject from Patna University in 2007 and on 20th May 2010, she submitted at the university her doctoral thesis on “The Pinteresque: Themes and Dramatic Strategies in the plays of Harold Pinter. She matriculated in Gaya.
The teaching fellowship has been awarded to her by USIEF under its Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program. Under this program, Indian nationals, who are between 21 and 29 years of age and currently teaching English at college level or training to be teachers of English, are selected. The selected FLTAs from India teach Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, or Urdu at select U.S. campuses during their nine month fellowship. As many as 150 countries participate in Fulbright program, out of which 60 countries have been selected for Fulbright FLTA.
Zeeshan Ali, who is Assistant Professor of English at Maulana Azad College of Engineering and Technology, will teach Hindi and Urdu under the program. Apart from being Fulbright Fellow she will also be cultural Ambassador from India to the US. She will leave for the US in the end of July.