Six University of Maryland Students Win Fulbright Awards

COLLEGE PARK, Md.-Six undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Maryland have been awarded Fulbright grants for 2009 academic year -- more than in any previous year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is the nation's largest international exchange fellowship program, providing approximately 1,500 research and English teaching fellowships each year. It is designed to give recent graduates and graduate students opportunities for international experience, personal enrichment and an open exchange of ideas with citizens of other nations.

This year's successful Maryland undergraduates are: Jacqueline Foelster, who will study the role of social entrepreneurship in Cambodia; and John Rios and Christine Finke, who will be teaching English in Korea and Germany respectively. Maryland's winning graduate students are: Andrew Ballard, who will be working on the simulation of biological systems in Austria; Heather See who will be researching early childhood education in Spain; and Jeremy Best, who will study the political role 19 th century German missionaries played in imperial policy. Undergraduate Ashley Jurinka, is currently an alternate selection for an English teaching grant to Turkey.

"We are excited by the rapidly growing interest across campus in the Fulbright program and the wonderful opportunities it provides for international living and learning,"said Jonathan Auerbach, professor of english and Maryland's Fulbright Program advisor. "Maryland's six successful candidates this year will be pursuing ambitious and varied projects in physics, education, history and business in five different countries - these are sure to be transformational experiences."

The Fulbright Program is America's flagship international educational exchange program. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Ark., 111,000 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad. The program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. For more than sixty years, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has funded and supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered by the Institute of International Education.

UM National Scholarships Office

Contact:
Francis DuVinage
301.314.9458

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