Fulbright Program Adviser
Newsletter

Ways to Increase Diversity

The U.S. Department of State, the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and IIE are working to increase applicant and U.S. institutional diversity in the Fulbright Program.  To that end, the U.S. Student Programs Division at IIE stands ready to assist you in any way possible to publicize the program on your campus and to work with you in recruiting and counseling students.  If your institution has not participated in the past, we would urge you to do so for the current competition.  IIE can work with you to jumpstart your campus’ participation in the Fulbright Program.

We are looking for diversity within the Fulbright program.  This means we are seeking candidates from varied ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, pursing all fields of study, persons with disabilities as well as from a wide array of geographical locations and institutions.

In expanding our diversity outreach, we have partnered with the Posse Foundation, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), mtvU, Mobility International USA: The National Clearing House on Disability and Exchange (MIUSA) and the United Negro College Fund's Institute for International Public Policy Fellowship Program to name a few.  If you know of other organizations with which Fulbright should be partnering, please contact Tony Claudino: tclaudino@iie.org, 212.984.5345.

Campus Visits by IIE staff or Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors

Please let us know if you would like us to visit your campus. We enjoy meeting students and talking about Fulbright; we also talk to institutions about how they can internationalize their campuses with a variety of programs.

The deadline for submitting a request for a campus visit is June 1, 2009.  Additionally, we also coordinate several visits with the Fulbright Scholar Program (CIES) and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program.  If you are able to provide travel support and/or coordinate with other colleges and universities in your region, please include this information in your request.  Fall visit notifications will be sent the week of July 27, 2009.  To submit a campus visit request, please contact me, Tony Claudino: tclaudino@iie.org, 212.984.5345.

Fulbright U.S. Student Program National Screening Committee

Nominations of faculty interested in working with IIE on the National Screening Committee are welcome.  Those nominated should be at least at the associate professor level, with Ph.D.s, and experience in the country for which they will be reviewing applications.  Especially needed are reviewers with expertise in: Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands (except art history) and Scandinavia (except Sweden), the UK (social sciences), France and Spain (except language/literature and history); Eurasia (except Russia); Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan; Southeast Asia (except Indonesia) and all fields in the visual and performing arts. 

With the expansion of the English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) Program, we are also expanding our list of prospective reviewers.  We welcome nomination for full time faculty in ESL programs, TESOL degree and certificate programs and foreign language departments.  These faculty members should have extensive experience teaching at the college level and experience abroad.  We also welcome the nomination of scientists with international experience.  Please send a short biography of the nominee (or a website link with biographical information) and indicate his or her country/area of expertise including their email address to Jody Dudderar: jdudderar@iie.org, 212.984.5565.

How Do You Recruit Diverse Applicants for Fulbright Grants? Through Direct Contact with Students

Davidson College is a small, highly-selective liberal arts school of about 1,750 students.  We at Davidson are known for many of the same features found in similar institutions: very smart and directed students, relatively low numbers of minority faculty and students (around ten percent, depending of how one counts), high numbers of students going on to graduate and professional schools, with most of the other graduates moving straight into fields like banking, consulting, volunteer and service work, or teaching.  I have been the Fulbright Program Adviser on campus for the last several years, during which time the faculty and I have been able to recruit both a larger number of applicants than in the past and a larger proportion of minority applicants.  I think there are a couple reasons for this.

The first has to do with structures of advising at Davidson, where only faculty members serve as student academic advisers. Students are used to working with faculty from day one as advisers on classes, projects, graduate school and job applications, as well as life plans. Similarly, there is no administrative office for graduate fellowships and scholarships.  Instead, Davidson has a faculty committee (chaired by me at the moment), made up of faculty members who have special familiarity with a broad range of both undergraduate fellowships (Goldwater, Beinecke, Truman, HHMI, for example) and graduate fellowships and scholarships (Fulbright, Rhodes, Marshall, Gates, NSF, Liebmann, Luce, Watson, and the like).  Students go to faculty by default for advice on all kinds of things and thus to faculty for advice on a Fulbright application.

Scott Davidson, Fulbright Program Adviser and German Professor, Davidson College

The September meeting draws a large number of seniors, perhaps a quarter of the class (that is, about 110 students).  At that meeting, I also speak about Fulbright minority recruitment initiatives as described in the Fulbright materials sent to me as an FPA.

So, how to recruit diverse applicants?  Search them out directly based on their interests, achievements, and potential (through the word of mouth of their faculty advisers), and then follow up with personal direct contact.  Once students begin the application process, I prompt them about deadlines and generally maintain a high level of contact and encouragement. In a small college with a structure of engaged direct faculty advising already in place, this seems to work fairly well.

Resources for Promoting the Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Below are several resources you can use to let your students know about the Fulbright Program:

Fulbright U.S. Student Program Applicant Blog

Applicants to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program are encouraged to visit regularly the new Fulbright U.S. Student Program Applicant Blog.  It can currently be found on us.fulbrightonline.org under RELATED LINKS.  The blog features tips and advice on applying to Fulbright, student testimonials, a calendar with upcoming campus visits, a link for enrolled students to find their Fulbright campus adviser and links to resources, such as podcasts and YouTube videos.  New content will be posted at least bi-weekly if not more often.

http://usfulbrightstudent.blogspot.com/

E-Newsletters

We are currently producing two newsletters each month:

Fulbright Grantee Newsletter:

http://newsletter.fulbrightonline.org/newsletter/index.php?id=128

FPA Newsletter:

Each issue will cover tips on how to assist U.S. Student Fulbright Program candidates and offers resources and best practices on how to promote the program.

Podcasts (available on iTunes)

Four types of podcasts are currently available:

My Fulbright Life: Interviews with current Fulbrighters who talk about their projects and experiences overseas.

Applicant Podcast: Interviews with IIE Program Managers and others on how to complete a successful Fulbright application.

Fulbright Alumni Roundtables: Interviews with Fulbright U.S. Student Program alumni grouped by world region or type of grant discussing their experiences in applying and being overseas.

Fulbright Guidance Sessions: Presentations with Q&A sessions on applying to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

YouTube

The Fulbright Program has a YouTube page where you can view videos of students and Fulbright staff members talking about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.