Explore Sean’s Essays:
What is Cultural Diplomacy?
Cultural diplomacy – the attempt by a government to win the hearts and minds of foreign nationals – has a long tradition in the history of the world. Akin to an early form of globalization, cultural diplomacy served as a tool of statecraft for ancient civilizations of the...
Fulbright Skills
I received a lot of questions about the Fulbright when I decided to take the grant, many friends and family wanted to know what this would do for me, how would it help you I couldn't answer those questions when I took the grant, but after months of living in Sri Lanka I have a...
Stop Stealing Dreams
"We need students who can learn how to learn, who can discover how to push themselves..." -Seth Godin "Thank goodness I never went to school. It would have rubbed off some of the originality" -Beatrix Potter These quotes greeted my business English students at the Trinco Jesuit...
Bureaucracy
For several months now I have been working with the Tsunami Animal-People Alliance to try and coordinate a dog vaccination and sterilization clinic in Trincomalee. I first got in contact with the NGO after a fellow Fulbrighter told me about the work they were doing around the...
Think Outside of Yourself and Your Own Experience
I was sitting on a verandah, sipping on a cup of coffee, overlooking the main road of Kandy. At the table next to me was a group of girls, pouring through their Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, trying to figure out their next stop along their tour. We started chatting and the...
Vipassana
Ten days of "nobel silence". One hundred hours of still meditation. For the past twelve days I was introduced to Vipassana mediation at the Dhamma Kūṭa center outside of Kandy, Sri Lanka. It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. After this experience my mind...
Qualified Teacher
I'm not TEFL, TOEFL, or CELTA certified. My only qualification as an English teacher are that I have a Bachelor's degree (in finance) and I speak English. As a Fulbrighter the State Department gave me two days of English teaching training before sending me off to a foreign...
The True Cost
How much would you pay for a t-shirt? Five dollars? Ten? Forty? How much should you pay for a t-shirt? What would it cost to produce a shirt that does no harm to the environment or person? Can clothing even be produced in a sustainable way? Clothing is the second most chemical...
Learning Colours
Learning Colours by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe I hear the maid tell my daughter, three years old and just able to make out red from pink and even blue from purple, as they sit on the verandah avoiding the glare of our tropical sun, that she is fair. If it had been someone else,...