The University of Illinois has a history of Fulbright success, ranking as a Top Producer of Fulbright students nationally for the past six years. To capitalize on this momentum, the National and International Scholarships Program is partnering with several campus units to create the first Illinois Fulbright Week, offering a range of programming that both celebrates Illinois’ Fulbright tradition and seeks to continue it by recruiting the next crop of Fulbrighters.
The Fulbright is the United States’ premier academic exchange program, providing grants to U.S. citizen students, alumni and academics to study, teach and perform research around the world. It simultaneously brings international students and scholars to U.S. universities each year.
“Our decision to expand our Fulbright programming to a whole week of events was motivated by the fact that Fulbright is actually a large umbrella program with many different types of grants within it,” said Richelle Bernazzoli, the program’s scholarships coordinator. “We wanted to offer multiple writing workshops that will assist students applying for both study and research grants and the English teaching assistantships. Also, this was a great opportunity to partner with other campus units, such as the Career Center and the Writers’ Workshop, to offer additional expertise to students. The focus is on transferable skills that will benefit them beyond their Fulbright applications.” “We are excited to bring together like-minded members of the Illinois Fulbright family (faculty, students and international grantees) and introduce them to prospective new applicants and one another to help build upon the Fulbright principle of growing international partnerships right here on our very own campus, said David Schug, the program director. “Likewise, we think the events of this week may assist even more Illinois students in earning the opportunity to similarly promote international goodwill across the globe.”
Illinois Fulbright Week will begin with an information session April 14. The week will include a career panel featuring former Fulbright recipients, webinars for Illinois alumni and current study-abroad students, and writing workshops for grant proposals and personal statements. Several events require registration. See the online schedule of events for more information.
