USD grad student traveling to Romania to study orphanages

Like any other morning, around 8 a.m. on March 24, University of South Dakota graduate student Holly Baker checked her email. It was then she got the news of a lifetime.

She had been selected for a Fulbright study and research grant in Romania.

“It was new in my inbox and I just kind of sat bolt-right up in bed,” Baker said. “I read it very slowly, and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that I got a Fulbright.'”

The award will allow Baker to research and revise her dissertation, “Steal Them Away,” in Bucharest, Romania for nine months, and ultimately turn her project into a book.

Baker will live overseas from next October to the following June. She said one of her main objectives while there is to get a true feel for the country’s culture.

“I want to get to speak the language, maybe if not proficiently at least adequately, so kind of getting the flavor of it in my own mouth,” Baker said. “It’s a different experience when you’re actually being immersed in the culture and being able to represent it from the inside out rather than the outside in.”

According to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program website, Romanian language proficiency is “recommended.” It said preference is also given to advanced graduate students.

Baker received her undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in Utah and her Masters degree from Ohio University.

She said she first became attuned to the Romanian orphanage crisis through a TED Talk by Georgette Mulheir. After a few other conversations and more reading, she saw the potential for a story.

“I kind of fell into it, really,” Baker said.

Initially, she planned on writing creative nonfiction.

“Eventually it transitioned towards fiction because I didn’t have all of the tools and resources that I would need to complete a nonfiction project the size of a dissertation,” Baker said.

The plot of “Steal Them Away” is centered around two Romanian sisters who are adopted by two different American families in the early 1990s.

One, who is 6 years old when adopted, has suffered permanent damage from a lack of a nurturing environment in the orphanage. The family that adopted her, like many real families at the time, was not equipped to deal with the challenges after bringing her into their home.

“One of the things that attracted me to the project was the idea that these children in the orphanages suffered a lot of neglect and lack of nourishment, lack of stimulation, sometimes abuse, and so they just weren’t getting the kind of nurturing that a child gets when they’re born into a home,” Baker said.

The other sister, who is only six months old at the time of her adoption, goes through a much less traumatic experience growing up.

Baker said the characters are not representative of all orphanages in Romania.

“The characters and plots themselves are very much fictional, but based on the interviews I have conducted with other people, I’ve pulled in some of those details,” Baker said.

After orientation, Baker will be on her own, separate from the other Fulbright winners.

“I’ve always loved travel, and sort of the adventure of the unknown,” Baker said. “It sounds weird, but I look forward to struggling over there and kind of figuring out how to live in a foreign country all by myself.”

After the nine months, Baker hopes to work as a creative writing professor at a college or university.

She plans to self-promote her work and hopefully find a literary agent to help navigate the publishing market.

Natanya Pulley is on Baker’s dissertation committee, and helped her throughout the Fulbright application process. When she found out Baker won the Fulbright, she cried.

“It was so exciting, and it is so nice to see somebody who is so deserving get something like this,” Pulley said. “A lot of the publishing world and in the writing world is a matter of getting used to rejection. So when the wins come in, it is such a big deal.”

Pulley said Baker has skills that go beyond being a good writer.

“She is not only an incredibly talented writer, but also on top of her game,” Pulley said. “She has goals. She has projects. She has plans. She has resources. She knows enough about research that she knows where she needs to go.”

Baker’s advice to creative writers attempting to further their research is to start early and ask advice from professors with experience.

“Above all, trust yourself as a writer, and believe in your project,” Baker said.

(Photo: Graduate student Holly Baker was selected for a Fulbright research scholarship. Ally Krupinsky/The Volante)