A Coast Guard reservist has joined the ranks of Nobel Prize winners and heads of state as a member of this year’s class of Fulbright Scholars. Petty Officer 3rd Class Elizabeth Montoro, a marine science technician (MST), never could have imagined her Coast Guard career would have put her on a path to the coveted program.
Four years after joining the Reserve, Montoro is representing the United States in Sicily, Italy and researching how different countries interpret international maritime law and impacts on search and rescue (SAR) operations during migrant interdictions.
Every year, the United States Department of State selects 800 top American scholars to study, teach, conduct research, and improve cultural understanding overseas. They represent the United States in over 135 countries worldwide.
Montoro’s academic journey would not have been possible without the Coast Guard Reserve, she told MyCG.
It all began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an acceptance to Pitzer College in hand, something didn’t feel right. “I was really disillusioned by the prospect of doing online [college],” she said. “I just wanted the real deal; I didn’t want ‘Zoom school.’”
The service offered an education and experience that cannot be replicated in the classroom, she explained. Montoro joined the Coast Guard and deferred her first semester.
She soon found the Coast Guard’s greatest strengths: its people and the responsibility it gives them. The service, she said, empowers junior members by entrusting them with important and substantive work. “The amount of responsibility that the Coast Guard extends to its enlisted personnel is vastly different than the other services”—and the private sector, she added. “I would have been grabbing people coffee if I decided to intern for some company.”
Eager to seize upon these opportunities to support critical missions, Montoro volunteered to support Operation Vigilant Sentry the summer after her junior year. At 21-years-old, she served as a Situation Unit Leader in Key West. That role exposed her to interpretations of international maritime law, which she’d studied during a semester abroad in Italy earlier that year. That contrast between American and European norms gave her an idea—it became the basis of her senior thesis and inspired her to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship.
When Montoro found out that she had been selected to continue her research as a Fulbright scholar, she was thrilled. But she wondered how she could balance the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with her budding career in the service — and admission to Officer Candidate School (OCS).
That uncertainty didn’t last long. Montoro’s Command at Sector LA/LB — and the Coast Guard at large — could not have been more supportive of her ambitions, she said. Montoro’s Captain and Command Master Chief recognized the Fulbright’s implications for her career and worked with her to ensure she could accept the scholarship while meeting her drill obligations. And the Coast Guard made it easy to defer OCS for a year. “It was super easy, and they were really responsive. They just care about their people,” she beamed.
After she finishes her year of research — which includes interviewing members of the U.S. and Italian Coast Guards and conducting and analyzing public opinion surveys — she will continue her career in the service at OCS. She also hopes to publish her thesis and contribute to the academic field.
As for her future beyond OCS, Montoro is still zeroing in on a specialty. It’s safe to say a graduate degree and international law are in the cards.
Whatever her future holds, she says, she will always be grateful to and proud of the service that exposed her to the world of maritime law — and inspired and enabled her academic pursuits. “I am certain that I got the [Fulbright] grant because of my Coast Guard experience.”
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Resources:
- For more information on the Fulbright Scholarship, please visit their website.