2004-12-1
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.
We continue our series of reports for students who want to come to
the United States to attend a college or university. Today we tell
about the Fulbright Program. It gives Americans a chance to study,
teach or do research in other countries. And it gives people in
other countries a chance to do the same in the United States.
Those who take part in this program are called Fulbright
scholars. Fulbright scholars receive enough money to pay for travel,
education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United
States government, governments of other countries and private
groups.
The program was established in nineteen forty-six under
legislation proposed by Senator William Fulbright. He saw this as a
good way to improve world understanding. He also believed that the
program could educate future world leaders.
Senator Fulbright thought that living and learning in another
country would help people understand other ideas and ways of life.
And he thought the experience would help them understand their own
country, too.
More than two hundred thousand students, teachers and researchers
have taken part in the Fulbright Program. Among the scholars in the
past was Boutros Boutros Ghali, who became secretary general of the
United Nations.
Almost five thousand Fulbright grants are awarded each year to
American and foreign students, educators and professionals. You can
learn more about the program from the Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs at the State Department. We have a link to the Web
site at WWW.testbig.com. Or do a search on the Internet for
the term "Fulbright Program."
A separate program is called the Fulbright Teacher and
Administrator Exchange. This is a way for an American educator and a
foreign educator to trade places, usually for a full school year.
More than twenty thousand teachers and administrators have taken
part in the exchange program since nineteen forty-six.
The list of countries involved in the program changes from year
to year. The Web site for the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator
Exchange Program is fulbrightexchanges.org.
Listen next week for part fifteen of our Foreign Student Series.
Our reports are also online at WWW.testbig.com.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen.