James Tamba Lebbie - Fulbright Student from Sierra Leone
Field: Communications & Journalism
Host Institution: Fordham University
Grant Dates: August 2009 - May 2011
Lebbie at Fordham commencement ceremony.
If somebody had told me five years ago that I would achieve the academic feat of studying in one of the top-tier U.S. Universities as a Fulbright grantee, I would have dismissed that person as a daydreamer. Even when I eventually graduated in 2006 with a First Class (honors) degree in Mass Communication at the University of Sierra Leone, I couldn’t imagine by any stretch of my imagination that such an opportunity was in the pipeline. My courage, tenacity and determination to work hard (then as a Temporary Teaching Assistant), along with the constant assurances from the head of my university’s Mass Communication Department that with such an excellent undergraduate degree, the sky was my limit, helped keep alive in me a glimmer of hope.
In April 2009, fortune struck. Out of a very transparent and competitive process at the United States Embassy in Freetown, I secured a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a two-year graduate Public Communications program at the prestigious Fordham University in New York. According to the Fulbright Terms of Reference, my undertaking was to be preceded by a 10-week “Pre-Academic Program” at the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE), Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
Suffice it to remind my readers that my lack of confidence in my ability to progress to academic heights was born out of my very humble background as a boy who grew up in rural Sierra Leone. To exacerbate my psychological challenges, the disintegration of my family that eventually led to the demise of my father in 1992 (during Sierra Leone’s vicious civil war that ran from 1991 to 2002) made life extremely gloomy for me. I had to brave the odds, and, with the timely intervention of Catholic Missionaries in the Diocese of Makeni, Sierra Leone, I was able to make it to high school and, subsequently, the university.
Meanwhile, on June 12, 2009, I left Freetown for Athens, Ohio, with the initial feeling that the OPIE was a waste of my time and resources on the part of my sponsors because throughout my schooling, the medium of instruction had been English. However, no sooner did I reach my destination and commence the program than I realized I was in for very serious pre-academic work. The program—mainly an orientation for foreign students on U.S. academic culture, graduate work and the socio-cultural life of Americans—was rich and exceptional. The tutors were very committed to their work and were always willing to help students comprehend their courses. By the time we completed the OPIE program, my level of confidence to undertake any graduate work increased considerably, which convinced me that the pre-academic program was justified contrary to my earlier impression.
I left Athens, Ohio, at the end of August to commence my actual academic work at New York’s Fordham University, a Jesuit institution that emphasizes students’ commitment to service. Needless to say New York was a far cry from Athens in every respect. Whereas the latter was a small, green and serene university city away from the Ohio state capital, Columbus, I found the former to be organized chaos. But once I was able to discover the rhythm of that massive cultural melting pot called the “Big Apple” and to crisscross its seemingly complex networks of underground railroads popularly known as the “Subway,” I realized that New York was a home away from home. The lush green and hospitable campus of Fordham University coupled with its excellent academic and administrative staff, the commitment to students by the staff of the Institute of International Education (IIE) and by extension, Fulbright, and the politeness and honesty of purpose of “One To World”—a non-profit education organization that coordinates enrichment programs for Fulbright grantees in the greater New York area—combined to make my Fulbright experience a breathtaking encounter.
The academic program at Fordham University, among other things, radically transformed me from a media consumer to a critical media user, while the Fulbright program as a whole shaped me into a truly global citizen with immense social capital. I graduated on May 21, 2011, with a Master’s degree in Public Communication, confident in my capacity and ability to render quality service to my country and to the world in line with Fordham University’s core values. And with this level of depth, confidence and a wider network of friends and colleagues around the world, the sky is no longer my limit; I have resolved to touch the sun or die trying.
To the U.S.-Sierra Leone Fulbright Program