Vassar Students Among the Top Ten for Fulbright Grants

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (December 9, 2004) — Vassar College has been cited by the prestigious Fulbright overseas study program as one of the top ten undergraduate colleges producing Fulbright grant winners in the past year. Five of the fifteen Vassar students who applied for 2004-2005 Fulbrights received financial awards, and are now research fellows on three continents, according to the Institute of International Education, which administers the Fulbright U.S. Student Program on behalf of the United States Department of State.

"Support from individual faculty and the members of the college's Committee on Fellowships contributes to helping these talented students put together incredibly sophisticated and culturally engaging study projects and proposals," explained Susan Davis, who just completed eighteen years as the director of Vassar's Office of Fellowship and Pre-Professional Advising, and is now a consultant to the college. "It is a tribute to our students and the liberal arts tradition that disciplines from across the curriculum are represented, including the natural sciences."

The research subjects and locales for Vassar's 2004-2005 Fulbright fellows include: Emily Whitesel '04, chemistry, Chile; Laura Vary '04, botany, Madagascar; Amy Turr '04, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Germany; Mary Joyce '04, North African Politics, Morocco; and Tara Murphy '04, Women's Studies, Colombia.

Fulbright fellows undertake self-designed study programs in disciplines ranging from the social sciences, business, and communication to the performing arts, physical sciences, engineering and education. The U.S. Student Program awards approximately 1100 grants annually, and participants currently operate in over 140 countries.

'students that are most productive in these competitions start the application process early and work closely with faculty to develop their proposals," said Lisa Kooperman, who now directs Vassar's Office of Fellowships and Pre-Professional Advising. "The campus process is in place to support students applying for these awards, and we welcome applications from both seniors and alumnae/i."

In the past 56 years, 100,000 students from the United States have participated in the Fulbright program. Financial support is provided by an annual appropriation from Congress to the Department of State, with significant contributions from participating governments and host institutions in the United States and abroad. The presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board formulates policy guidelines and makes the final selection of all grantees.

For more information contact Lisa Kooperman, director of the Office for Fellowships and Pre-Professional Advising, at (845) 437-7060, and Tony Claudino of the Institute of International Education, at (212) 984-5345.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861.

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Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

This article was posted on Thursday, December 9th, 2004.