Broadcast: December 2, 2004
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports for students who want to come to the United States to attend a college or university. Today we tell about the Fulbright Program. It gives Americans a chance to study, teach or do research in other countries. And it gives people in other countries a chance to do the same in the United States.
Those who take part in this program are called Fulbright scholars. Fulbright scholars receive enough money to pay for travel, education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United States government, governments of other countries and private groups.
The program was established in nineteen forty-six under legislation proposed by Senator William Fulbright. He saw this as a good way to improve world understanding. He also believed that the program could educate future world leaders.
Senator Fulbright thought that living and learning in another country would help people understand other ideas and ways of life. And he thought the experience would help them understand their own country, too.
More than two hundred thousand students, teachers and researchers have taken part in the Fulbright Program. Among the scholars in the past was Boutros Boutros Ghali, who became secretary general of the United Nations.
Almost five thousand Fulbright grants are awarded each year to American and foreign students, educators and professionals. You can learn more about the program from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. We have a link to the Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. Or do a search on the Internet for the term “Fulbright Program.”
A separate program is called the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange. This is a way for an American educator and a foreign educator to trade places, usually for a full school year. More than twenty thousand teachers and administrators have taken part in the exchange program since nineteen forty-six.
The list of countries involved in the program changes from year to year. The Web site for the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange Program is fulbrightexchanges.org.
Listen next week for part fifteen of our Foreign Student Series. Our reports are also online at voaspecialenglish.com.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen.