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Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Ambassador Bruce Wharton (front, fourth from right) and members of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board

The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board held its 274^th Quarterly Board meeting on February 9 in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Department of State. The event featured a Swearing-In Ceremony, presided by Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Ambassador Bruce Wharton, to welcome five new members and the reappointment of Board Member Maneesh M. Goyal. The new members include former U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, Dr. Markos Kounalakis, Christopher Fonzone, Rudy Mehrbani, and Natalie Quillian. (Note: Read Ambassador Wharton’s full remarks and view additional photos from the ceremony.)

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Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Ambassador Bruce Wharton swears in new members and a reappointed member of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board

During the meeting, the Board discussed program updates and elected Anita McBride as Vice Chair for 2017. Highlights also included a meeting with Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors, Justin L. Hill (Fulbright U.S. Student in Law, Barbados 2009-2010) and Kara Spiller (Fulbright U.S. Student in Engineering, Portugal 2010-2011), who serve as official representatives of the Fulbright Program to demonstrate the program’s rich diversity and to play a key role in expanding outreach to prospective grantees across the United States. 

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Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors Justin L. Hill (Fulbright U.S. Student in Law, Barbados 2009-2010) and Kara Spiller (Fulbright U.S. Student in Engineering, Portugal 2010-2011)

The Board also received briefings from World Learning, a new implementing partner of the Fulbright Specialist Program, and Dr. John B. Bader, Executive Director of the Fulbright Association, about ways to strengthen the partnership between ECA, the Board, and the Alumni Association to more effectively mobilize and empower the Fulbright Alumni network to create lasting Fulbright impact in their local, national, and global communities. 

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P2P finalists from Belgium, Italy, and Lebanon presented their campaign ideas and met with officials at the State Department.

Every semester, “P2P: Challenging Extremism” competition finalists from around the world are invited on the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) to meet with American business and community leaders. This semester’s finalists, who arrived from Belgium, Italy, and Lebanon, traveled to New York City and San Francisco after presenting in Washington, D.C. During their stay, they looked at strategies for designing more effective and culturally significant solutions to extremist messaging and recruitment. Below are the campaigns, which they shared with State Department officials following the official presentation at Facebook in Arlington, Virginia:

Aspiration, Communication, and Transformation - Notre Dame University in Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon

The winning team of Lebanese students hailed from Notre Dame University in Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon. All video arts and journalism students, their goal was to target at-risk youth and spread awareness about the negative consequences of extremism. They named their initiative ACT, standing for Aspiration, Communication, and Transformation. ACT defined “at risk youth” as having a greater likelihood of dropping out of school, being more easily swayed by certain religious sects, spreading extremist messages, and coming from impoverished backgrounds with no access to sustainable income. 

ACT’s mission was endorsed by several Lebanese celebrities, including Jessica Azar, a well-known MTV news anchor in Lebanon. The ACT team distributed over 2,000 flyers in Lebanon and conducted a press conference with a guest panel. The event was streamed live on Facebook. They also created a conceptual video. The end result was that the Lebanese government will continue to collaborate with ACT to combat extremist messaging.

You-Nite - KU Leuven, Belgium

The Belgian P2P participants created an anti-radicalization campaign at a national level, calling their initiative You-Nite. They mentioned how the Brussels attacks lead to a widespread military presence throughout Belgium. You-Nite studied recruitment strategies that extremists use and how dehumanization strategies encourage disaffected youth to join. Their message emphasized the multiculturalism that exists in Belgium, and they noted that they strive for a peaceful coexistence among all citizens. Among their methods of combating extremism was utilizing Facebook exposure and interviewing citizens in five major cities in Belgium, speaking with school-age children to search for viable solutions, and compiling the solutions in video and digital formats. One You-Nite member even appeared on national television, and other members worked with Belgian government officials. Additionally, they hosted a contest where people submitted their own content, with 62 percent of the target demographic being in the 18 to 24 year age range. You-Nite’s message was broadcast in 23 languages, attracting the attention of immigrants living in Belgium. Other tactics, including organizing a break-dancing event to spread their message, helped the You-Nite team spread the word about their campaign.

ReAct - University of Cagliari, Italy

The Italian P2P participants, students from the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, developed ReAct, with the goal of combatting fake news and extremist ideas distributed on the internet and targeted at high school and university students. The ReAct team strongly believes that information is the key to combatting extremism, and the ReAct team spoke with many immigrants as they developed their campaign. The team then took ReAct on the road, lecturing in different high schools, giving quizzes, and even interviewing with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ReAct team also met with Italian embassies for information sharing and to further their goal.

To learn more about the teams and their campaigns, follow the hashtag #ChallengeExtremism. 

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FFSB Members with University President Mark B. Rosenberg, Faculty, and Fulbright Alumni at Florida International University.

Florida International University (FIU) hosted the 273rd quarterly meeting of the Board, November 16-17 in Miami, Florida, in celebration of International Education Week and the 70th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program.

Highlights included an FIU World Fair competition, with student entries judged by FFSB Members Sam Brown, Betty Castor, and Executive Director Katharina Gollner-Sweet, and a panel discussion "Fulfilling the J. William Fulbright Vision: Mutual Understanding for a More Peaceful World" featuring FIU alumni of the Fulbright Scholar and Student programs.

The Board’s business meeting featured a briefing on United States-Cuba relations, a panel discussion with Florida-based university Fulbright advisors; and the election of Jeffrey Bleich and Emma Sepulveda as the Board’s Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, for 2017.

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Chair Jeffrey Bleich spoke in a panel titled, “Fulbright alumni in the public and private sectors” on November 12, 2016 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. at the Annual Fulbright Association conference. Other panelists included Bryan Wynn (CEO, AUVSI), Reuben E. Brigety (Dean, Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University). Michael Hawes, Executive Director of the Canadian Fulbright Commission, moderated. 

The Open Licensing Playbook offers responses to federal grant-officers’ common questions, and highlights federal use cases. It is designed to support federal efforts to increase efficacy of grant funds, as well as opportunities for innovation and collaborative practices using federally-funded resources. The Playbook also supports the federal commitment to expand access to educational resources through open licensing and technology as outlined in the 2016 U.S. National Action Plan for the Open Government Partnership. The Global Education Subcommittee resource reflects comments and input provided by federal grant-making entities and civil society. 

Four alumni of the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) exchange program stopped by the State Department to share their experiences abroad and their plans for the future.  The four were part of a larger group of sixteen competitively-selected NSLI-Y Alumni Representatives, who were in DC for training to develop their leadership and organizational skills to plan regional alumni activities for 2017. Now part of the International Exchange Alumni community, they spoke about how their time overseas made them more globally-minded and sparked their interest in language learning and global affairs and cultures.

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NSLI-Y Alumni Representatives Elise, Angela, Deni, and Andy visit the State Department.

Angela, from a limited-income family in Florida, never dreamed that she would study Chinese in China.  Her hometown of Orlando has limited Chinese language study resources.  Although she grew up in a bilingual family, Angela had a strong desire to learn a new language.  When she read about the NSLI-Y program on the Internet, she immediately knew she had to apply.  And once accepted, she eagerly began planning her trip.  “I had only been on an airplane once before, so just the trip to the airport and being on an airplane was exciting,” she said. Angela worked hard on learning the language, but also took an affinity to the culture and took every chance she could to learn from her host family and peers. While in China, Angela jumped at the chance to attend a traditional Chinese wedding, since many Chinese couples today choose more modern ceremonies.  

Andy, of the Philadelphia area, had studied Chinese in his school prior to his NSLI-Y experience in Hangzhou, China.  He shared that the NSLI-Y experience allowed him to excel in his language abilities.  Further, he noted that the immersion experience allowed him to more deeply empathize with his parents about their experience as immigrants in the U.S from Vietnam.  He continues to study Chinese in his first year at University of Pennsylvania.  Andy has promoted the NSLI-Y programs to several high schools in the Philadelphia-area. 

Another NSLI-Y participant, Elise, from Georgia, studied Arabic in Morocco.  She was amazed to learn of the Arab, Amazigh, Spanish, French and other influences on Moroccan culture.  Elise plans to study as many languages as she can in preparation for an internationally-focused career. 

NSLI-Y participant, Deni, shared that his parents were nervous about him going to the Middle East, but Deni said he felt safe throughout his exchange.  He bonded with his host family and returned to the United States with an intermediate level of Arabic and enthusiasm for continuing his studies in Arabic, learning more about the Middle East, and supporting refugees in the U.S.  The NSLI-Y Alumni Representatives are all busy planning activities for 2017, including organizing career-focused events for alumni in their geographical areas and making presentations about NSLI-Y to potential applicants. 

To learn more about the program, including application deadlines, check out: https://exchanges.state.gov/us/program/nsliy