Study in the Land of Lincoln
I am grateful for the funding and support that the Fulbright Program offers me. Also, writing this reflective essay provides me a great opportunity to think and document what I have experienced in the past year. My journey in the United States so far, especially in the state of Illinois, can be divided into three categories: 1) study, 2) research, and 3) life. Study I am studying my doctoral degree in Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the first semester at U of I, I was amazed by the flexibility that students in my program could have in the selection of courses. When I was studying in Taiwan, I did not really have to think what classes to take as most of the courses were mandatory. Thus, my first task as a PhD student was to explore and plan my coursework that best suits my research field. I ended up registering for three courses and one independent study with my academic advisor. The first two courses I chose both involved quantitative methodologies, specifically econometrics, offered by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics. On the one hand, I was curious about how people in the field
