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John Brown aggregates all the most recent public diplomacy related news, including current issues in U.S. foreign policy, international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

MAY 18, 2005 EXCHANGES SUPPLEMENT
by Gordon Douglas

E) WEEKLY EXCHANGES SUPPLEMENT

The following articles are related to educational and cultural exchange programs. Specific topics in this supplement include USG-funded exchange programs (e.g., Fulbright scholarships, Ron Brown Fellowship, International Visitors) as well as issues relating to student visas, study abroad, and NGOs involved in exchanges. The articles are aggregated weekly by MR. GORDON DOUGLAS, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

E.1) USG–FUNDED EXCHANGE PROGRAMS (SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION E.2 FOR OTHER TOPICS)

1. US EMBASSY INVITES APPLICATIONS FOR FULBRIGHT PROGRAMME – (BORNEO BULLETIN, MAY 18 2005):  Following the recent successes of Brunei Darussalam’s first ever Fulbright scholar, the US Embassy has announced it is now inviting applications for the Fulbright Graduate Studies Programme, a program of academic exchange for the promotion of global understanding. Scholarship awards for the Fulbright Graduate Study Programme will be offered to Bruneian citizens and permanent residents to allow them to pursue a post-graduate degree in the United States.
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2. MIAMI ANNOUNCED FULBRIGHT GRANTS – STAFF (JOURNAL NEWS, MAY 18 2005):  Miami University awarded six current and former students Fulbright grants this week for pre-doctoral graduate study and research.  Students in speech pathology and audiology, philosophy, and economics, as well as three alumni were all recipients of the award.  While typically one applicant in five receives a Fulbright grant, at MU this year six out of seven applicants were given the award.  The students will study in St. Petersberg, Vienna, Munich, Santiago, South Korea, and Bogota, respectively.
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3. INTERNATIONAL WEEK BEGINS WITH HISTORY – LINDSEY SRP (THE POST [OU], MAY 17 2005):  Ohio University’s 24th annual International Week kicked off last night with a keynote speech entitled “The Fulbright Legacy: Opening Minds” delivered by Harriet Fulbright at Walter Hall Rotunda.  Ms. Fulbright serves as the president of the Fulbright International Center and is a member of the JW Fulbright Foreign Scholarships Board, both of which were started by her late husband William Fulbright.  She spoke of her husband’s childhood and his ideals of obtaining knowledge. OU has nine Fulbright scholars from the United States who will travel abroad next year. Forty-nine international students also are studying at OU, said Josep Rota, associate provost of International Studies.
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4. US HIKES FULBRIGHT GRANT FOR INDIANS – (INDIA DAILY, MAY 17 2005):  Reflecting the United States’ increased interest in South Asia, the fund allocation for Indian scholars in 2004-05 Fulbright fellowships has been hiked by about $300,000 to $1.6 million.  US Educational Foundation of India (USEFI) executive director Jane E Schukoske explained that “America has a heightened interest in South Asia, especially India. So the grant has increased.” Indeed, it has nearly doubled from 41 grantees in 2000-2001 to 79 grantees in 2004-2005. The Indo-US agreement on educational exchange, signed by first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and US Ambassador Loy Henderson in February 1950 established the USEFI.
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5. PROF HEADS TO ARMENIA AS A FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR – NANCY MACE (WAYNESBORO RECORD HERALD [PENNSYLVANIA], MAY 16 2005):  A Penn State Mont Alto professor is hoping to open doors for himself and the people of Armenia when he travels to the country this summer as a Fulbright scholar. An associate professor of communications arts and sciences at Mont Alto, Mueller was honored as “scholar of the year” at PSMA’s commencement Saturday for his research, which has international importance and status. In Armenia, Mueller will teach courses (in English) on public speaking and media and society at Yerevan State Linguistics University after V. Brusov.
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6. GRAD LOOKS FORWARD TO FULBRIGHT EXPERIENCE – JULIE FERRARO (SOUTHBEND TRIBUNE, MAY 14 2005): Nina Helmen is excited, not so much about her graduation today from Saint Mary’s College, but about the year to come. She sees the opportunity to teach in Germany on a Fulbright teaching assistantship as moving on to greater things. The young woman hopes to use her double major in mass communications and German to become involved in German public broadcasting.
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7. BABSON’S FIRST FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR WILL ASSIST SOUTH AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS – PRESS RELEASE (YAHOO / BABSON COLLEGE, MAY 13 2005): Babson College senior Julian Simcock has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, the first at the top-ranked school for entrepreneurship.  Simcock will travel to South Africa to study the business support services currently available to entrepreneurs. His project, “A Study of Entrepreneurial Resources in the Western Cape,” will target those aged 24- 34, who, despite no longer having access to secondary schooling, have enormous capacity to impact economic growth in the informal sector through entrepreneurial activity.
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8. TWO FACULTY MEMBERS EARN FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR AWARDS – (PENN STATE LIVE, MAY 12 2005): Two faculty members from the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies in the College of Communications at Penn State have earned Fulbright Scholarships to lecture and conduct research abroad next year. Associate professor Anthony Olorunnisola will be based at Lagos State University in Nigeria, assessing media contribution to public discourse in a post-militarized Nigeria and to teach a seminar on global communications. Professor Mary Beth Oliver, also co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, will conduct her research on the effects of media content on ethnic and racial stereotyping from the University of Otago in New Zealand.
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9. $2.7 M BOOST FOR FULBRIGHT SCHOLARSHIPS – (STUFF.CO.NZ, MAY 3 2005): The Government of New Zealand has announced an extra $2.7 million spread over four years to more than double the number of Fulbright Scholarships available to New Zealanders, designed to aid post-graduate study in the United States. Research Science and Technology Minister Steve Maharey said today the extra funding meant 10 more Fulbright Scholarships would be awarded next year.
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E.2) OTHER NEWS ON EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE ISSUES

10. CULTURAL EXCHANGE – MARY BULKOT (ITHICA TIMES, MAY 18 2005): Schoolchildren in Ithica, NY live in an area rich in Native American history, yet most students never have an opportunity to experience this culture first-hand. To give students from both cultures a chance to meet and share their cultural backgrounds, a teacher from Ithica’s DeWitt Middle School arranged to bring students from the Shonto Preparatory School, which is located on the Navajo reservation in Shonto, Ariz., to the Ithaca City School District (ICSD).  The students from Arizona spent last week as guests of ICSD and the Cayuga Nature Center, which hosted the only event open to the public. The Shonto students led dance and other cultural workshops to introduce students at Cayuga Heights Elementary and DeWitt and Boynton Middle Schools to Native American traditional practices. Navajo weaving, corn grinding and traditional hair tying were all exhibited.
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11. AUDIOSLAVE’S CUBA PERFORMENCE - BLABBERMOUTH (93X.COM/BLABBERMOUTH, MAY 16 2005):  Thousands of fans, some waving flags, even an American one, cheered, cried and sang along in unison on May 6 as Audioslave became the first American rock group to play Cuba.  The nearly two-and-a-half hour concert - the longest of the band’s career - attracted the largest crowd to attend a concert by an American artist in the communist country’s history.  Fans wearing Audioslave t-shirts and those of other American rock bands were among the enormous crowd at the free outdoor concert at Havana’s La Tribuna Antimperialista Jose Marti. The history-making performance was filmed for a future DVD, as were the band’s visits to historic sites around the city. The trip was authorized by the United States Treasury Department and The Instituto Cubano de la Musica as part of a music educational exchange.
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12. JOIN ALUMNI, EXCHANGE STUDENTS ADVISED – (THE STAR [MALAYSIA], MAY 16 2005):  Malaysians who have participated in the US Exchange Funded Programmes are encouraged to be members of the Malaysian American Friendship Alumni Association (Mafaa).  Annually, 100 to 150 Malaysians participate in educational exchanges, including the 30 American Field Service (AFS) students sent annually to study at American high schools. Mafaa aims to reach out to past participants to maintain strong connections between Malaysia and the US.
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13. CULTURAL EXCHANGE – PRESS RELEASE (UNIV. OF ALABAMA / SCOUT.COM, MAY 16 2005):  Chuck Davis, who will be a senior on the University of Alabama’s 2005-06 basketball team, has started his summer vacation with a cultural exchange trip to the Far East. Davis is part of a nine-man team, all players from the Southeastern Conference, representing Sports Reach, a Christian-based sports ministry. Davis and his teammates will play teams around the Far East as well as conduct children’s basketball clinics where they will also share their ministry.
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14. CYCLISTS FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE RAISE MONEY FOR IRAQI CYCLISTS – MARINA MALIKOFF (SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL, MAY 14 2005): As they gear up for Sunday’s 16th annual bike ride, members of the Cyclists for Cultural Exchange (CCE) are also in the midst of another ambitious undertaking: raising $15,000 to support the Iraq Junior National Cycling team.  They aim to provide the group with funding and encouragement, including specially designed jerseys, which are also for sale to the American public at CCE’s 16th annual Strawberry Fields Forever event, which has 900 participants, including a group of riders from Turkey.
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15. SIGNS OF NOSTALGIA ATTRACT CUSTOMERS, COMPADRES – JENNIFER DELSON (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MAY 14 2005):  Many businesses in Santa Ana, California are named after towns in Michoacan, a state in central Mexico. Leaders of a local Michoacan Federation say as many as one in five Mexicans in Santa Ana come from there.  The emigration trend is so well-established that the governor of Michoacan recently visited Santa Ana, and officials from that state have set up cultural exchanges with the city.
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16. WAKEFIELD STUDENTS BENEFIT FROM CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM – RUTH PURNELL (RAPPAHANNOK NEWS [VIRGINIA], MAY 12 2005): Every year Wakefield Country Day School offers its students an educational trip abroad. This year a group of students traveled to the Westhill Institute in Mexico City. Visiting the Pyramids, The Museum of Anthropology, eating Mexican food and playing soccer were just some of the trip’s highlights. Students stayed with host families and were able to experience life in the city first hand. After the student’s return, 14 students from the Westhill Institute embarked on the journey to America to visit Wakefield. A trip to our nation’s capital, Monticello, the University of Virginia, and bowling were all part of the agenda. In an “International Assembly” Wakefield students were given the opportunity to ask the foreign students questions about their lives in Mexico City and their impressions of America.
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17. CULTURAL EXCHANGE ENVOYS – EDITORIAL (ASAHI SHIMBUN, MAY 10 2005):  In this Editorial, the Asahi Shimbun strongly endorses the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs’ program of sending cultural exchange emissaries overseas, saying “These missions offer enormous benefits.” Having taken part in international cultural exchanges himself, the agency’s director, who established the program, reasoned that if influential artists and others who are well-versed in cultural affairs were able to stay overseas their efforts could produce enormous benefits.
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