Regional Student Events

Fulbright Friday Highlights

Fulbright Friday events were held in Washington, DC; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; and San Francisco, California. These events helped reach Fulbright Foreign Students who had not already attended Gateway or Preacademic Programs. Each city had a slightly different agenda for the day, but all had a Fulbright benefits and responsibilities session and community service component.

Washington, DC: Twenty-three Fulbright Foreign Students, three U.S. alumni, and one second year Fulbright Foreign Student attended the event. Students showed off their artistic and gardening talents at Art Works Now by working on a building beautification project. Forty-four area Fulbright Foreign Students and Fulbright Visiting Scholars joined the group at an after-event happy hour.

Chicago, IL: Forty-one students attended the Chicago Fulbright Friday event. Students shared that they were inspired by the impact of the community service organization, Sweet Water Foundation, on the south side of Chicago. Here are some of the participants:

New York, NY: Twenty-nine Fulbright Foreign Students and three U.S. alumni from New York City and New Jersey attended the event. The highlight was volunteering at the Franciscan Community Center and HANAC Senior Residence, which helped to not only build relationships with the community but also among Fulbrighters through meaningful work experience.

San Francisco, CA: Twenty-four Fulbright Foreign Students and three U.S. alumni attended the event. Eighty local-area Fulbrighters came to the after-event reception. The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank community service activity included a tour of the facility, highlighting the importance of volunteers. Comments received from the students included:

• “I have never volunteered in a food bank before”
• “It made me want to do more community service and help others”
• “This was my first time at a food bank and it felt good helping send food to people who really need it.”

Campus visits

October was one of the busiest months of the year for campus visits. Highlights from campus visits included a reception at American University (AU) attended by over 40 people, including Fulbright Foreign Students and Scholars, academic advisors, and Fulbright Program Advisors. The reception provided networking opportunities for current Fulbright Foreign Students and many connections were made.

A sample of upcoming campus visits:

• SUNY Binghamton
• Montclair State University
• University of New Hampshire
• University of Maine
• Dartmouth College
• Saint Michael’s College

To find more information on campus visits and events, please visit the Fulbright Events section of the website and search “campus visits”.

Academic Advisor Emails

IIE Student Services teams have been contacting academic advisors in November to make introductions, give an overview of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, provide reminders of various Fulbright policies, and check-in to ensure that the grantees are making progress.

New Website Resource for Students

A new section of the website, called Connecting with Your U.S. Community, focuses on volunteering and community service. The section starts by defining volunteering and community service and highlighting why it is important to get involved.  What information do you think would be helpful to share on the website with Fulbright Students? If you have ideas, please share directly with your Fulbright Foreign Student Program contact at IIE.

Placement Reminder

As the 2016 application and placement season begins, we encourage you to continue to look on Fulbright Online for the latest Placement Reports including submission and missing document reports. The placement team is working to review and finalize as many submission plans as possible. This will allow us to begin work on all applications, particularly those with early deadlines, and submit complete applications.

As a reminder, we will be asking that you upload any required documents missing from candidate applications at the time of nomination to the Fulbright Online Missing Documents Portal.

Placement Webinars

University Placement Services has been offering a 2016-2017 placement webinar series!  Webinars provide information about the placement cycle and topics related to general application processes. Additionally, Placement Officers are hosting field specific webinars that address trends and application requirements common to individual areas of study. All sessions will include time for questions and answers to allow individual Fulbright candidates to interact with Placement Officers. Space is limited for each webinar! Please encourage candidates to register early, and log in to each webinar promptly.

Please visit our Resources & Events page on Foreign Fulbright Online for a regularly updated schedule of upcoming webinars.

Recorded webinars will be archived on Foreign Fulbright Online under the Commissions & Posts Tab, Placement Resources dropdown. Here, you will find a Recorded Webinars tab which will list all recordings. Please distribute links to candidates as needed / requested.

The first Introduction to IIE’s Placement Services can be accessed here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/9059191131272485634

Self-Placed Programs

It is not too early to submit your 2016-2017 self-placed program panels to IIE in advance of the May 1, 2016 deadline! Please check the J-1 Visa and Immigration Information section of the Foreign Fulbright Online website for DS-2019 guidelines and a complete list of required supporting documents. Please notify your Fulbright Foreign Student Program contact when applications become available in Embark.