ASU a top producer of Fulbright awards

Arizona State University is the second highest public research university in the nation for winning student Fulbright grants, according to rankings just released by the Chronicle of Higher Education. A record 18 ASU students are studying in 16 different countries this year.

ASU also is one of the top producers of faculty Fulbright Awards, ranking 10th in the nation with four faculty members selected to teach and conduct research abroad this year. Both the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University also have four faculty Fulbright Award recipients.

Building a broad network of strong international relationships is part of the global engagement mission of ASU. The university encourages students and faculty to pursue exchange abroad, in order to foster collaboration and build global perspective.ASU students are especially successful at winning overseas study grants, partly because of ASU’s emphasis on global studies and foreign languages, and also because of the strong support of faculty mentors.

This year’s faculty Fulbright Scholars include Souad T. Ali, faculty head of classics and Middle Eastern letters and cultures in the School of International Letters and Cultures. She is lecturing and doing research on Islam and secularism at the American University of Kuwait.

Mark Schmeeckle, associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences, is in Hanoi, Vietnam, studying sediment transport and the sustainable development of Vietnamese waterways at the Hanoi Water Resources University.

Both Ali and Schmeeckle are in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Adam Chodorow, professor of law in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, is lecturing at the Southwest University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China. His topics are tax law, historic and current Chinese tax systems, commercial and regulatory law, and U.S. law.

Clifford Schexnayder, professor emeritus in the Del E. Webb School of Construction, is at the University of Piura in Lima, Peru, lecturing and doing research on the economic construction of transportation facilities. He is in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Among the student awardees, half graduated from ASU in May with bachelor’s degrees in fields ranging from political science to education. The other half are master’s and doctoral candidates, bringing their expertise in chemistry, computer science, biology and literature, among other topics, to different countries. Eight of the students are teaching English.They are living for one year in these countries: South Korea, Germany, Sweden, Vietnam, Ecuador, Croatia, Argentina, Thailand, Japan, Madagascar, Australia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Cyprus and France.

ASU student Fulbrights rank second only to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor among publics, and 11th overall. The University of Michigan also ranked first for faculty awards with seven, tying Michigan State and University of Oregon.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and is the largest U.S. international exchange program, awarding grants to students and faculty to study, teach, lecture and conduct research in more than 155 countries. Designed to enhance the international interests of the U.S. as well as its scholarship, the program is sending 1,551 students and 1,250 scholars abroad this academic year.