According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, each year the Fulbright program sends about 1,100 American scholars and professors to approximately 130 different countries.

These members are awarded grants to serve as activists for international educational exchange, whether in the form of teachers, philanthropists, artists, advocates or even lecturers.

“The Fulbright program is managed by the Institute of International Education, which runs over 250 programs for faculty, graduate students and undergraduates,” said Gene Cline, professor of philosophy and Fulbright campus advisor. “Our students typically apply to one of the foreign language programs, teaching in another country, where [knowledge of] the language is core to the proposal.”

According to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the program was originally proposed in 1945 by Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.

After World War II, Fulbright wanted the program to promote “mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries of the world.”

“The cultural experience is huge, I have learned about how stuff works in a culture different from the United States,” said Natalie Corbin, a 2006 graduate. Corbin was awarded a place in the Fulbright teaching assistant program at a German high school.

“Part of my job was to help students improve their English and the other was to teach them what life was like in America,” Corbin said.

Corbin said she has been able to apply the skills that she learned skills during her time in the Fulbright program, to the English 101 class she now teaches.

She currently teaches at the University of Maryland, and is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing.

“I have learned to communicate things in many different ways to get ideas across,” Corbin said. “While teaching a 101 class, it has helped me figure out multiple ways to communicate ideas.”

Brynn Howard, 2007 graduate, who completed a Fulbright teaching assistant program, also reflected on her personal development.

“I definitely gained self confidence, my German improved and I learned that I can live on my own anywhere in the world,” Howard said. “This experience taught me a lot about myself and made me stronger. It made me more independent because I was placed all by myself in the middle of nowhere.”

 “I had to open a bank account, go shopping, pay rent all on my own. It took like three and a half months to get internet ”

Howard also faced some challenges with her Fulbright program.

“My Fulbright experience wasn’t what I had imagined because of my location,” Howard said. “I was placed in the middle of nowhere with really nothing to do and no one my age.”

“I would recommend this program to other students as long as they were placed in a large city or at least close to one.”

Cline notes that after completing the Fulbright program, students pursue a plethora of different activities.

Howard is looking to enter the job market. “Now that I have finished the program I am job searching and want to work in public relations, advertising or events planning for a global company where I can utilize my German skills,” Howard said.

According to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, applications for the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program for 2009-2010 are due Aug. 1.