Fulbright Information Meeting – Tues 9/6, 5:00 PM

Interested in applying for a Fulbright Fellowship? Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti, campus advisor, will hold a meeting this Tuesday, September 6, at 5:00 PM in Monroe 240.

See below for more information:

Would you like to study ballet in Moscow, opera in Italy, or Flemish Renaissance painters in Belgium? Would you like to research migration patterns into Western Europe, Nile River Valley irrigation methods, mathematics in Ukraine, chess in India, or the effects of global warming on tropical rain forests in Brazil? Would you like to teach English in Turkey, Korea, India, Germany, Japan, Italy, or several other countries? These and several other possibilities exist under the Fulbright/IIE program.

If you are unsure what to do after graduation, and would like to spend next year teaching and/or conducting research abroad, consider submitting an application to the Fulbright Graduate and Research Abroad Program. This year’s national application deadline is October 17, 2011. The campus submission deadline is October 7, 2011.

This year I will first advise interested UMW Students on their applications, and will then share their application statements with our Fulbright Campus Evaluation Committee (Rosemary Jesionowski and Jessica Locke). This same committee will interview and rate each applicant for further consideration by the Institute of International Education, and Ms. Lisa Patton of the History Department will track all applicants’ application status.

UMW graduates have won 6 Fulbright grants in the past four years, which shows that it can be done. Last year, Michelle Alexander won a grant to research the effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the population of Ukraine. Previous UMW students won grants to teach English in Korea, research the justice system in Cambodia, teach English in Mexico, study the effects of climate change on Ecuador’s arachnid population, and research immigration patterns and security issues in the United Kingdom. You, too, can do it — you need only a good idea, a solid GPA, and strong recommendation letters.

Although grantees must have obtained their bachelor’s degree by the time of their award, students who are not graduating this year — as well as interested alumni — are also encouraged to attend this meeting because successful applications often require advance preparation. At the meeting I will distribute Fulbright informational materials, and discuss strategies for successful applications.

Prior to attending Tuesday’s meeting, I encourage interested students to research the Fulbright website: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html .

— Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti