GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs named Bard College at Simon's Rock a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Scholars. 

 

This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the highest number of applicants selected for the 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

 

Most recently, Simon's Rock alumna Chazlee Myers was awarded an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) grant by the US-Italy Fulbright Commission to provide assistance to local English teachers in Italy and act as a cultural ambassador for the U.S from October 2022 to June 2023. Simon's Rock professor Peter Filkins was also awarded a Spring 2023 Fulbright IFK Senior Fellowship in Cultural Studies to research and write a biography on poet Ingeborg Bachmann. This award comes nearly 40 years after Filkins was first awarded a student Fulbright in 1983-84 to translate Bachmann's poems.

 

"We are excited to congratulate our fellow recipients and honored to be named among the Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Scholars. We are incredibly proud of all our students, alums, and professors who have received a Fulbright, and we know many future Fulbright scholars from Bard College at Simon's Rock are yet to come. In addition, I want to express immense gratitude to all our staff and faculty who support our students through their Fulbright process," said provost John B. Weinstein. 

 

Fulbright is the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program. It is also among the largest and most diverse exchange programs in the world. Since its inception in 1946, more than 400,000 participants from all backgrounds and fields – including recent university graduates, teachers, scientists, researchers, artists, and others, from the United States and over 160 other countries – have participated in the Fulbright Program. Fulbright alumni have returned to their home countries to make an impact on their communities thanks to their expanded worldview, a deep appreciation for their host country and its people, and a larger network of colleagues and friends. 

 

"On behalf of President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken, congratulations to the colleges and universities recognized as 2022-2023 Fulbright Top Producing Institutions, and to all the applicants who were selected for the Fulbright Program this year," said Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

 

"Thanks to the visionary leadership of these institutions, administrators, and advisors, a new generation of Fulbrighters – changemakers, as I like to say – will catalyze lasting impact on their campus, in their communities, and around the world." 

 

The Fulbright program is supported at Bard College at Simon's Rock through Director of Student Engagement & Career Development Manat Wooten and Dean of Faculty and Curricular Development Brendan Mathews. Since 2010, 12 Simon's Rock students, alumni, and faculty have been awarded Fulbrights.

 

The Fulbright Program was established over 75 years ago to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. While the primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, it benefits from additional support from foreign partner governments, non-governmental organizations, private organizations, corporate partnerships, and individual donors. Importantly, U.S. and foreign host institutions provide support as well. 

 

Fulbright alumni work to make a positive impact on their communities, sectors, and the world and have included 41 heads of state or government, 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 78 MacArthur Fellows, and countless leaders and changemakers who carry forward the Fulbright mission of enhancing mutual understanding.