I recently learned that I am the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Award. Yay! What an honor and I am most humble. Thank you State Department (and thank you Winthrop and USC for granting me time to go). I am still pinching myself in disbelief. I decided to blog about this experience from the very beginning (yes, I know I still have eight and a half months before we go *smile*) so that all of you who decide to read this (family, students, colleagues and friends) can journey with me.
So what is a Fulbright you ask?
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the Fulbright Program, U.S. citizens are eligible to go abroad, and non-U.S. citizens are eligible to come to the United States.
The Fulbright Program is one of the most prestigious awards programs worldwide, operating in over 155 countries.[1] Forty-three Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes (including two in 2010, Peter A. Diamond and Ei-ichi Negishi) and seventy-eight have won Pulitzer Prizes.[2] More Nobel laureates are former Fulbright recipients than any other award program.[citation needed]
The program was established to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills.
The Fulbright Program provides 8,000 grants annually to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university lecturing, and classroom teaching. The program is active in over 155 countries in all world regions. As of 2010, 300,000 persons - 114,000 from the United States and 188,000 from other countries - have participated in the program since it began.
In each of 50 countries, a bi-national Fulbright Commission administers and oversees the Fulbright Program. In countries without a Fulbright Commission but that have an active program, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy oversees the Fulbright Program.
The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors the Fulbright Program from an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress. Additional direct and in-kind support comes from partner governments, foundations, corporations, and host institutions both in and outside the U.S.[1]
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