The Fulbright Scholar Program is the largest and most widely recognized international exchange program in the world sponsored by the U.S. government. Lehigh currently hosts Fulbrighters from Pakistan, the Dominican Republic, France, Vietnam, Russia, Panama, Algeria, Afghanistan and more.
Applicants apply from all over the world and are selected based on their academic merit, competence, leadership potential, English proficiency and their goals for changing their societies after the program.
Sayed Hamid Akbary, a Fulbright scholar who came to Lehigh from Afghanistan in 2013, organized a memorial Monday for Farkhuna, a woman in Afghanistan who was brutally beaten in the country’s capital of Kabul. The goals behind this memorial were to show people that this culture should be removed from our social structure and to demand empowerment and rights for women in Afghanistan and other countries where women’s rights are violated.
The aim of the Fulbright Program is cultural exchange to make sure that students who come here on the Fulbright Scholarship introduce their culture, learn on the masters and doctorate level, learn from the American culture and take what they have learned back to their communities as well as promote mutual understanding.
“To be a Fulbright grantee for me, is to be an unofficial ambassador of my country and promote an understanding between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries,” said Nikolai Artemev, who came to the U.S. from Russia in 2013 and since then has become the president of the Fulbright Association.
According to the Fulbright program website, the application process is described as being “lengthy and rigorous.”
Applicants apply through the Fulbright Commission in their country of citizenship. After the application is submitted, they will be invited to take an English proficiency test, a Test of English as a Foreign Language and the GRE exam. Based on these tests, students will be interviewed by American staff members of the U.S. embassy and members of the U.S. embassy from their respective country.
Bill Hunter, the on-campus representative to the Fulbright Program, said when Lehigh made the decision to recruit international students to campus, the Fulbright Program was a natural partner.
When Akbary applied, there were 1,800 applicants from around the world and 60 were selected.
“For us, it is a life changing opportunity,” Akbary said.
Once a student has won and is accepted by the Fulbright commission, they work with a placement officer in the U.S. to help identify which university to go to.
“My role is to visit the Fulbright offices in New York and D.C. each year and present Lehigh’s graduate programs in hopes that placement officers will send applicants to Lehigh,” Hunter said.
After being placed at a university, Fulbright scholars must apply to Lehigh like any other student.
“There is such a level of respect and such a defined level of quality that comes with the Fulbright Scholarship, that more often then not they will get accepted,” Hunter said.
This past August, Lehigh received the largest number of Fulbright graduate students in the school’s history. Last fall, there were 12 new Fulbright scholars and 24 total on campus including Fulbright researchers and language teaching assistants.
“I have put a lot of effort to be able to come here and I appreciate everything I learn here and every single minute I spend here,” Akbary said.
The university does not require Fulbright scholars to do anything other than the normal requirements for every graduate student. The state department heavily emphasizes the need to engage and share their country and culture.
“I think we in addition to other non-Fulbright students at Lehigh have one assignment — and we are conscious of this assignment at all times — and that is introducing our culture to other students,” Akbary said.
Marina Kudasova, a Fulbright scholar from Russia, is a youth representative for the U.N. The Youth Representative Program allows students from Lehigh to act as representatives for geographically disparate NGOs.
“I feel that we, as students, have all the knowledge and resources to do something beyond our studies,” Kudasova said.
Kudasova originally came to Lehigh to get her master’s degree in international education and decided to stay for her doctorate.
During her time at Lehigh, Kudasova established the Lehigh UNICEF club for purposes of educating, advocating and fundraising for the protection of children both locally and globally. She is also a part of advocacy campaigns at the University Center every Monday, which gets Lehigh students to advocate for children by re-signing letters to U.S. senators asking them to address issues such as human trafficking, clean and safe water for children and support for children with disabilities.
“My expectations went far beyond what I expected and I am very thankful for Lehigh and for this opportunity and I believe I am a different person then I was four years ago when I got here,” Kudasova said. “I fully embraced the concept of diversity and multiculturalism and fulfilled the mission of Fulbright, which is to increase understanding of people in the U.S and other countries. Now I see that no matter what nationality, we are all the same.”
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