Knox Among Top Schools for Fulbright Fellowships for Students

The nation's foremost international educational exchange, The Fulbright Program, has again identified Knox College as among the leading institutions whose graduates earn Fulbright awards for international teaching and research.

Four Knox College students won prestigious Fulbright awards in 2012, which places Knox eleventh in the nation, along with eight other schools that also each had four recipients. The rankings included the top 38 institutions with four or more award winners, listed in a recent report in The Chronicle of Higher Education. This year's ranking is available on the Chronicle website; lists of leading Fulbright schools from 2004 through 2012 are available on the Fulbright Program website.

"Knox has a consistent record as a top producer of Fulbright award winners, with eighteen students five faculty and nine alumni receiving Fulbright grants in the past decade," said Lawrence Breitborde, Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Breitborde, who has received two Fulbright grants for his own research in Africa, advises Knox students who are interested in competing for Fulbright awards.

Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has selected more than 318,000 participants, including 44,000 students from the United States, on the basis of academic merit and leadership potential. Fulbright awards provide recipients with opportunities to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. This year, almost 1,700 American students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study were offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English, and conduct research in over 140 countries throughout the world.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In the United States, the program is coordinated by the Institute of International Education on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, including the annual competition for the scholarships.

The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the United States Congress to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, composed of 12 educational and public leaders appointed by the President of the United States, formulates policies for the administration of the Fulbright Program, establishes criteria for the selection of candidates and approves candidates nominated for awards.

The Fulbright Program also awards grants to American teachers and faculty to conduct research and teach overseas. In addition, some 4,000 new foreign Fulbright students and scholars come to the United States annually to study for graduate degrees, conduct research and teach at U.S. universities, colleges and secondary schools.