Record Number of Fulbright Scholarships at Rutgers

Editor's note: The following article is courtesy of Rutgers Today.

Rutgers University students and alumni received 26 Fulbright Grants this year, a record number for the university.

The prestigious grants offer students and young professionals the opportunity to do graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching in more than 140 countries worldwide.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which administers the grants, reported that Rutgers is tied for third place among research universities nationwide for the number of students and alumni receiving grants. Rutgers is joined in the top 10 by two other Big Ten universities – Michigan and Northwestern – along with other prestigious schools such as Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

The Rutgers recipients who pursued the program’s independent research and study grants are involved in fields as diverse as art history, geography and public policy, and are studying in Bangladesh, India and Italy. Those who pursued the program’s English teaching assistantships are teaching in Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries.

While most of the people applying for grants are seniors about to graduate, alumni and graduate students are eligible as well.

“We have been encouraging more and more students to apply for this program,” said Arthur Casciato, director of Rutgers' Office of Distinguished Fellowships. “Last year, 129 Rutgers people applied, the most ever in the history of the university.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. It was established in 1946 after Senator J. William Fulbright called for the use of surplus war property to fund the "promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science." The Fulbright U. S. Student Program awards approximately 1,900 grants annually.