Northridge Magazine

As Cal State Northridge’s yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary drew to a close, we sat down with Lisa Baughn, whose CSUN career culminated in May with a master’s degree in geography after she experienced life-changing opportunities that included travel to Indonesia as the university’s first student Fulbright Fellow. The U.S. Department of State recently announced that Lisa received its State Critical Language Scholarship. Her summer will be spent learning Turkish at Georgetown University’s McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies in Alanya, Turkey. Lisa talked about her CSUN experience and how it set her on the road to self-discovery.

Q. Lisa, you’ve traveled far from the farm in Kentucky where you were born and you’ve asked a lot of questions along the way. Have you always had such a curious mind?

A. I think so. I moved around a lot as a kid. That taught me to try not to be so afraid of what’s around the corner, even though it’s different and unknown. I was raised by a single mom and she took opportunities where she needed to. The fact that my mom was never afraid to go for it got me to think ‘oh, maybe I can be interested in what could be, rather than hanging on so tightly to what is.’

Q. What made you choose CSUN for your graduate education?

A. When I talked to the professors at CSUN, I told them the things I might be interested in doing, like continuing a project I had started as an undergraduate on a six-week trip around Tibet. They were so encouraging, supportive and open to anything I wanted to do.

Q. You were CSUN’s first student winner of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, which promotes understanding between America and other nations. How did that come about?

A. I just started using all the resources at CSUN, and they opened some unbelievable doors. I talked to Hedy Carpenter in Graduate Studies and she said “You should look at Fulbright.” It wasn’t something I had really considered but she said “Don’t be afraid to aim high and just go for it.”

Q. So as a Fulbright Fellow, you became an English teaching assistant at a public school in Indonesia for ten months. What was life like there?

A. I was in a city two hours south of Jakarta. It was a very dense, very populated tropical environment. All together I taught about 400 high school students, and I lived right next door to the school. It became my community and my life there. I had a wonderful time. Indonesians are really open and generous. Everyone at my school was so welcoming; they really went out of their way.

Q. What effect did Indonesia have on you?

A. Indonesia is special in a lot of ways. People have much less of a conception of the individual, and are much more in tune with the group…the social interaction is different. Seeing that allowed me to take a more critical look at my own life and my own culture. I got better at listening to myself and trusting myself.
Before I went to Indonesia I think I had a comparatively limiting view on my life. But there, I was able to make friends with people who had a different world view. They showed me that so much more was possible in the world than what I could conceive. Nothing is more exciting than that. Indonesia completely remade me as a person, and that whole experience was just the best thing that ever happened to me.

Q. What other opportunities did you find at CSUN?

A. When I came back to CSUN to finish my master’s degree, I started looking at Ph.D. programs. I also got the California Pre-Doctoral Fellowship [working with CSUN’s Graduate Studies office]. With that I was eligible for a fully funded summer internship with any program in America that grants Ph.Ds.

Q. And that opened more doors?

A. Absolutely. After my experience in Indonesia I could see that so many positive things were possible when Muslim and Western cultures interacted. And with that internship option I was able to study under almost anyone I wanted. So I contacted a professor at Harvard’s Islam in the West Program who was looking at Muslim integration issues in Europe, and comparing them to those to the United States. I was able to go to Harvard for the summer as an intern at the program. The Pre-Doc also funded international work for my internship, so I also went to Paris and met with European researchers.
After I finished my internship I was hired on as a research assistant for the Islam in the West Program Web site project, www.Euro-Islam.info. I also was teaching geography here at CSUN.

Q. How were you able to gain so many opportunities and experiences through CSUN?

A. I asked around about different programs, and I took good advice from smart people.

Q. Do you have any advice for other CSUN students?

A. Sometimes I see CSUN students that I recommend the Fulbright program to and I get this “It’s out of my league” attitude. It’s not out of anyone’s league. If it’s something you’re interested in doing, go for it and give it a try…Open your mind and work hard, and always keep your eyes open for opportunities.

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