As you consider new RD opportunities this year, members of the Strategic Alliances Committee (SAC) offer their support for the Fulbright Specialist and Fulbright Scholar opportunities, such as the short-term International Education Administrators Award (IEAA).
The Fulbright Specialist program sends US academic professionals abroad to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning, and related subjects at academic institutions for a period of two to six weeks. The Fulbright Scholar IEAAs are two-week seminars hosted by the Fulbright Commissions in particular countries for higher education professionals to exchange their professions’ best practices with their counterparts abroad.
SAC hosted a webinar on the Fulbright Specialist program in 2022 covering its applicability to RD professional development and its application and selection processes. Fulbright Specialist applications are reviewed every other month.
“If qualified, you’re added to a list, and interested countries can use that to select their chosen specialist,” Kotay explains. “To facilitate the process, it helps to identify the university you’re interested in visiting and research its needs. SAC members can help you with both the proposal development and how to establish connections. Then, when the university makes its application to host a Fulbright Specialist, it can name you, specifically.”
Kotay and Peggy Sundermeyer, Partner, ORG Transitions and a charter member of SAC, are willing to coach NORDP members who might want to explore these Fulbright opportunities. Sundermeyer says she’s motivated by the benefits that Fulbright can bring to the individual, their institution, their host institution, and the broader global research enterprise.
Selected in 2022 for the Fulbright Scholar IEAA in Germany, Kotay networked with German higher education administrators, shared best practices in RD, and learned about the German education system with a focus on the challenges of internationalization in times of crisis.
Fulbright IEAAs offer opportunities to RD professionals to enhance the internalization efforts of their work and share RD best practices that are often practiced differently outside the US.
“What one brings back to their institution is a stronger awareness of how to build partnerships for a variety of educational and research initiatives, plus the prestige of being a Fulbright Scholar,” Kotay says.
Led by the US government in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide, the broader Fulbright Program offers international educational and cultural exchange programs for students, scholars, artists, teachers, and professionals of all backgrounds to study, teach, or pursue important research and professional projects.
“These Fulbright opportunities can facilitate global research, better understand resource allocation in other countries, and foster excellent career development opportunities,” Sundermeyer says.
A copy of SAC’s Fulbright Specialist webinar is available in the members-only section of the NORDP website here.
More information about the Fulbright Specialist Program can be found here.
More information about the Fulbright Scholar International Education Administrators Award can be found here.
To explore Fulbright opportunities unique to your situation, send an email to peggys@orgtransitions.org and/or emkotay@arizona.edu.
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