ASU named top Fulbrights producer

November 01, 2007

ASU is one of the top universities for producing 2007-2008 U.S. Fulbright Fellows, according to the Oct. 26 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education.<separator></separator>ASU has a record 16 students who are studying abroad on Fulbright awards this academic year, ranking the university fourth among public research institutions. ASU is 14th overall among all research universities. Eighteen ASU students were offered the awards this year, and 16 accepted.<separator></separator>The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is the leading institution with 37 awards, in a list just announced by the Fulbright Program. Other top public institutions are the University of California-Berkeley with 23 and the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 18.<separator></separator>ASU candidates were among the most successful in the nation, with 40 percent of students who applied being chosen to receive the grants. Most leading schools have a 25 to 33 percent success rate.<separator></separator>“This is an impressive accomplishment,” says Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, which administers and coordinates the student program. “I would like to recognize the outstanding work of your Fulbright Program adviser, Janet Burke, whose efforts in advising students and promoting the program on your campus were very instrumental in achieving this success.”<separator></separator>Burke, associate dean of Barrett, the Honors College and director of the national scholarship advisement office, attributes ASU students’ success to supportive faculty who involve students in cutting-edge research, increased attention to global studies, the emphasis on foreign language and word-of-mouth among students.<separator></separator>“ASU faculty members tend to be very helpful to students in formulating their projects and establishing the necessary contacts overseas,” Burke says. “Students also have become more knowledgeable about applying for Fulbrights, by talking with their friends and lab partners who have won major awards.”<separator></separator>Under the national Fulbright program, almost 1,500 American students in more than 100 different fields of study were offered grants to study, teach English, and conduct research in over 125 countries throughout the world beginning this fall. ASU also is playing host to 14 international Fulbright students for graduate study, and three international faculty Fulbright Scholars.<separator></separator>Two ASU faculty members were selected to do research abroad this year as Fulbright Scholars. David Pickus, lecturer in Barrett, the Honors College, is lecturing and doing research on intellectual German-Jewish émigrés in America, at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Doris Marie Provine, director of the School of Justice and Social Inquiry, is doing research on unauthorized settlement and law in cross-national perspective, in Canada and Mexico.<separator></separator>The Fulbright U.S. Student Program equips future American leaders with the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly global environment by providing funding for one academic year of study, research or assistant teaching abroad.<separator></separator>“We greatly appreciate your commitment to furthering international education and public diplomacy in these complex times,” says Goodman in a letter to ASU President Michael Crow.<separator></separator>The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.<separator></separator>Photo cutline: Bryant Jensen, ASU doctoral candidate in educational psychology, is photographed in the city of Guanajuato.

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