News
Hamilton ranked high in Fulbright recipients
By Kirsty Warren ’18
February 20, 2015
The U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program, the Fulbright program, offers grants to students and scholars with an emphasis on leadership and cultural understanding. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Hamilton ranks thirteenth on a list of “bachelor’s institutions” which produce the most Fulbright students.
“Hamilton has been a Top Producing Fulbright College for years,” said Student Fellowships Coordinator Virginia Dosch. “But it’s not about the numbers, it’s about students and alumni having opportunities to pursue their academic interests, to study and work alongside others in cultures very different from their own, and to learn something about themselves and others.”
Dosch explained that students and alumni who pursue Fulbright grants explore their interests, passions, ideas and curiosities. They forge connections between academic interests inside and outside of the classroom, future goals and the international community. “Students and alumni thinking about pursuing Fulbright Grants ask themselves simple pointed questions,” Dosch said. “‘What would I do and where would I go if I had a year to pursue an academic interest through study or research, or if I want to teach English abroad and live in culture and community new and unfamiliar?’ ‘What am I most passionate about? What moves me more than anything else? What am I wildly curious about?’”
“There isn’t a set personal profile or special formula to tackle these questions and to win prestigious national awards. However, winners do have some fundamental characteristics in common,” Dosch said. Those characteristics include conducting research with professors, participating in internships, working on independent projects and engaging in co-curricular activities on campus.
For 2014-2015, seven Hamilton students were awarded Fulbright grants and English Teaching Assistantships: Robert Hayden ’14, Meredith Nuber ’14, Alex Rudow ’14, Sarah Mehrota ’14, Anderson Tuggle ’14, Leah Wolf ’14 and Samuel Bishop ’14. Dosch said that students use grants to study, research abroad, carry out self-designed projects, serve communities and more.
During their grants, Fulbright recipients meet, work and live with the people of their host country. “Through engagement in the community, individuals will interact with their hosts on a one-to-one basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity, and intellectual freedom, thereby promoting mutual understanding,” Dosch said. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in more than 140 countries and this years’ recipients from Hamilton traveled to Germany, Taiwan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Copenhagen.
Nearly 90 Hamilton graduates have participated in the Fulbright Program over the last decade. “Next year, Hamilton graduates will examine methods of transitional justice among internally displaced people in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya and the transition of German society after World War II through the lens of nurses at the former euthanasia site Kaufbeuren,” Dosch said. She said Fulbright recipients acquire the skills to promote the goals of cultural exchange and citizenship, nurture scientific collaboration and discovery and serve as leaders.
Past projects by Hamilton graduates include research on anti-malarial treatments in Senegal, research on potential drugs for Alzheimer’s disease in Spain, the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Dominica and infectious disease in sheep in Iceland. They have investigated legal aid services for female migrant workers in China, the use of solar energy in villages in India, social class composition of Palestinian refugees in Jordan and women and development in free trade zones in the Dominican Republic.
The Fulbright Program was founded in 1946 and offers grants to over 1,800 U.S. students in more than 100 different fields annually.
“[Fulbright recipients] explore ways to take their interests and passions to the next level. Simply put they engage fully in their lives at Hamilton and in the activities -- whether academic, co-curricular or both -- that bring them joy,” Dosch said.