Fulbright Connects
November 28, 2012
Various Fulbright Participants:
I applied to the Fulbright program because it is one of the only programs in the U.S. that allows true cultural exchange. Sitting at a desk in a library really doesn’t do it. When I meet people they inspire questions that I never would have asked of my work before I had travelled.Living abroad is an experience that changes your life forever, it broadens your mind.
Alain McNamara – Executive Director – The Binational Fulbright Commission in Jordan:
Learn to listen, open their eyes become better interpreters of each other’s cultures and values. That has been what the late Senator had envisioned for this program.
U.S. Fulbright Participant:
Being an American who was there to work on a project that was specific to Jamaica really opened a lot of doors.
Rachel Weeks – Duke University – U.S. Student Program, Sri Lanka:
What it created for me was an awareness of how small the planet is and how connected one person can be.
Narrator:
Fulbright exchanges have expanded opportunity around the world for over six decades.
Zachary Ruchman – Princeton University – English Teaching Assistant, Jordan:
Every day has been a new adventure. Having a Fulbright has given me a chance to have this great experience teaching these students.
Daniel Luma – UC Santa Barbara – US Student Program, Argentina:
The Fulbright lets you work – do your research – in a very unencumbered setting. It’s a very diverse fellowship, available to many types of research, and people with many interests.
Carina Ferrari – Leloir Institute – Visiting Scholar program at University of Cincinnati:
The Fulbright fellowship helped me so much because it gave me the first step to go abroad, to work in another lab. They opened a huge door.
Prof. Charles Tien – Hunter College – U.S. Scholar Program – China:
I had Chinese students and American students sitting together in the classroom. That exchange is probably more valuable to American students than anything.
Prof. Meena Alexander – Hunter College – U.S. Scholar Program, Florida:
I think this is the very best that the United States of A merica can do in terms of reaching out to different parts of the world. The access to education, and to ideas, and to culture and I think people are genuinely curious.
Sen. J. William Fulbright – From The Fulbright Experience, 1986:
Living and working with people in another country changes ones attitude towards those people, towards all countries with a different culture. I think it creates a capacity for empathy, for the capacity to understand a different point of view, a different religion.
Narrator:
Born out of the ashes of World War II, inspired by a remarkable vision of global exchange and dialogue, the Fulbright program offers unique opportunities to connect and change lives one person at a time.
Experiencing the culture, understanding the people there and also being a role model and an example of the people from our part of the world. Difficult but wonderful and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
