Alyssa Bulow is a Master’s student in MSU’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program. Before coming to MSU, Alyssa lived all around the world teaching and volunteering. She went from Guatemala to Peru and Bolivia, eventually moving to Honduras and finally China. Fluent in Spanish and calling on her international experiences, Alyssa notes that reaching out is difficult as a visitor in a new place. Knowing who to contact and what practices are culturally appropriate is challenging, on top of the fact that for visitors to the U.S.: Americans speak quickly and are often difficult to understand. Her experiences living and teaching abroad influence all the interactions Alyssa has with anyone from another place- and she loves meeting new people! “I reach out because I just love meeting people from other places and talking to them. They bring a really unique perspective,” Alyssa says.
After moving back to the United States to have her daughter, Alyssa decided that she wanted a graduate degree and because she was aiming for the best, MSU was the dream. Alyssa says teaching is her passion and knew finances would be a limiting factor in her ability to persist as a graduate student. Despite a highly competitive candidate pool for Teaching Assistants in her program, Alyssa was awarded a TAship which enabled her to pursue her goals while doing what she loves. “I know that sometimes people complain about the pay is the, but honestly I would do it for free just because I love it so much,” she says.
Alyssa speaks to the challenging manner in which most graduate students wear multiple “hats” and how difficult that can be in the academy. “I think it has been a bit challenging just because it’s [graduate school] not necessarily friendly to nursing or people who have children- or people who have anything different about their life.” Alyssa’s life outside of MSU is unique to say the least. She is a certified scuba diver and is passionate about ocean conservation. In fact, she hopes to someday teach somewhere near the ocean to combine her passions. She also cares deeply about access to diverse fresh foods and has plans for her own organic sustainable market garden to supply food for her family. This ties directly into her love for plants in general- at the time of her interview, Alyssa had 100 baby plants started throughout her apartment. Lastly, she gets up at 5:30 am a few days a week to teach are to Chinese students via WeChat. She appreciates the opportunity to have dedicated time to do art herself while seeing her students grow and develop.
Getting to know individuals across the university is what has been rewarding for Alyssa throughout her graduate degree. Her advisor and faculty members are “encouraging, understanding, and flexible”. Plus, Alyssa participates in a variety of activities across MSU. Programs such as the Graduate School Leadership Academy and University Outreach and Engagement’s Graduate Certification in Community Engagement- plus social interactions like couch surfing- have afforded Alyssa the opportunity to connect and collaborate with a variety of individuals in the Spartan Community.
Originally written and photographed by Makena Neal, 2019
