The Fulbright U.S. Student Program has awarded several Syracuse University students the opportunity to explore their research and teaching interests around the world for the 2017-18 academic year.
Five students were selected to participate in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program; two students were awarded study/research grants. The research grants and ETAs are awarded through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
“The Fulbright program allows our graduates to immerse themselves in another culture and language while at the same time, in most cases, ‘giving forward’ via teaching English. Both the U.S. and their host societies gain through increased communication and understanding,” says Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies and Professor of Anthropology Susan Wadley, the campus Fulbright representative. “This year’s SU Fulbright awardees were exceptionally qualified as strong students and researchers, but most of all through their engagement in community activism while at SU. Their experiences, often with Syracuse’s refugee communities or local schools, were evidence of their commitment to language and education.”
The application process itself is a valuable experience for students, who can seek assistance through the University’s Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA).
“Students have to think through and articulate their qualifications and goals, and to imagine cultural engagement in another country. That work can be very clarifying, and it can also often be applied usefully to graduate school or job applications,” says Jolynn Parker, CFSA director, assistant director of the Renée Crown University Honors Program and a campus Fulbright program adviser. “For students interested in international engagement, the Fulbright is unmatched opportunity for a year of support to live and learn abroad. Now, perhaps more than ever, the Fulbright program’s goal of ‘promoting mutual understanding’ between the United States and other countries feels vital.”
The following students were selected for the Fulbright awards:
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which is the largest U.S. exchange program with 1,900 grants awarded annually, allows students to take on international study, research and teaching opportunities as part of U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright’s vision in 1945 for the “promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture and science.”
“Students who receive a Fulbright award work, live and learn from the people of their host country during the period of their grants, whether they are teaching English abroad or conducting research,” Parker says. “Returning Fulbrighters always express their gratitude for the incredible privilege of this experience, and their sense of both intellectual and personal growth.”
Students interested in applying to the Fulbright program should contact the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (315.443.2759, jmpark02@syr.edu). The campus deadline for the 2017-18 application cycle is Sept. 11, 2017.
