Mariama N’Diaye (XXIX) Becomes Prep’s 19th Fulbright Recipient

Mariama is used to working across time zones, but she didn't expect to be late to her Fulbright interview. Working abroad, she went to bed at 2 a.m. after a full day of meetings, and her alarm clock was in the wrong time zone. “I wake up to all these calls. I have 30 seconds to get ready, and I just interviewed immediately.” The rush and stress might have thrown someone else off their game, but Mariama didn’t let it faze her. She felt the committee made such an effort to get in contact with her for a reason—they must believe in the potential of her research. 

The inspiration behind her Fulbright research pitch came from her work as Project Manager, Social Services with Bloomberg Associates—a position she held for four years. “The best project I’ve worked on centered around supporting recently reunified families in Milan. The work was all-encompassing.” One aspect was the creation of a welcome guide for migrants. “We had to communicate with all of these different city agencies. The hospital system, education system… keeping in mind the landscape of migration is very diverse in Milan.” Yet Mariama discovered that diversity wasn’t being articulated or identified fully by different agencies. For example, in her communication with a school, she asked for the number of immigrants in their system. They said 80% migrant. But what does that mean? Is it majority Egyptian? Of Chinese descent? And how can that influence the approach to a welcome guide? “So I was interested in comparing these processes with another city. Look at the history of that city’s immigration policies, practices, and approaches… and what context will it give to how they are responding now?”

Mariama was contemplating all of these ideas while simultaneously applying to graduate school. She believed this could be a valuable Fulbright research project that can impact how people and organizations support migrant communities. “I wanted to compare three international cities. So, I not only had to create these essays and statements, and collect letters of recommendation, I also had to find host institutions in each of these places. I’m cold emailing all of these professors to sponsor me.” With only a month left to apply, Mariama’s tenacity led to her successfully securing hosts for her research. Mariama will study how programs and policies of city agencies support immigrant communities at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, and the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research in Berlin. 

Due to the pandemic, Mariama’s travels have been delayed, ultimately having to eliminate Paris from the plan, but her Fulbright studies finally begin this month (March 2021). She was accepted into graduate school as well and has been able to defer enrollment until after completing her Fulbright. She will attend MIT to pursue a master’s degree in urban planning, where her international perspectives will be great assets for her field of study. Congratulations, Mariama!