Wesleyan Named a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Students

The Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) recently announced that Wesleyan is included on the list of United States colleges and universities that produced the most 2019–2020 Fulbright U.S. Students. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program.

Not only is Wesleyan a top Fulbright producer nationwide with its seven grantees, but it also has more winners than any other liberal arts institution in Connecticut.

“We are delighted to see that the colleges and universities we are honoring as 2019–2020 Fulbright top-producing institutions reflect the geographic and institutional diversity of higher education in the United States,” said Marie Royce, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. “We are committed to the Fulbright Program’s goals of creating lasting professional and personal connections by sending passionate and accomplished U.S. students of all backgrounds to study, research, or teach English in communities throughout the world. These Fulbrighters serve as citizen ambassadors for the United States in their host communities, and we will benefit from the skills, knowledge, and global connections they build on their exchanges long after they return home.”

The Fulbright competition is administered at Wesleyan through Fulbright Program Advisor Magdalena Zapędowska, assistant director of fellowships in the Fries Center for Global Studies. The 2019–2020 grantees (who are all recent alumni) are: Jordan Legaspi ’19, Emma Distler ’19, Ulysses Estrada ’17, Amad Amedy ’19, Stephanie Loui ’14, Emma Porazzo ’19, and Katie Murray ’19. Ellie Martin ’16 also received a Fulbright, however she didn’t apply through Wesleyan. Fulbright grant offers were also extended to Rachel Yanover ’19 and Hai Lun Tan ’18, who declined them to pursue other educational plans. (See the 2019–2020 Wesleyan Fulbright announcement article here.)

Wesleyan was listed as a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students in the Feb. 9, 2020, issue of The Chronicle of Education under the “baccalaureate institutions” category.

The Fulbright Program was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. More than 2,200 U.S. students and over 900 U.S. college and university faculty and administrators are awarded Fulbright grants annually. In addition, some 4,000 Fulbright foreign students and visiting scholars come to the United States annually to study, lecture, conduct research, or teach their native language.

Wesleyan also was named a Fulbright U.S. Student Top Producer in 2017-18 and 2016-17.