On Thursday, 4 April, a delegation from the United States (US) consulate in Johannesburg visited the North-West University (NWU) as part of their project to recruit students for and inform them about the prestigious and world-renowned Fulbright Program.
The delegation presented an information session about Fulbright opportunities, which took place at the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus, but was also streamed to the Vanderbijlpark and Mahikeng Campus.
The Fulbright Program is one of the United States’ flagship international educational exchange programmes and was created by Senator J William Fulbright of Arkansas in 1946. More than 380 000 students from more than 160 countries have participated in the exchange, with more than 2 000 of them having been South Africans. The first South African recipient travelled to the United States in 1953 to study at Harvard University.
Jeff Ladenson, public affairs officer at the US Consulate General in Johannesburg, is part of the team that oversees educational outreach and exchange programmes for the North West, Gauteng and Free State provinces.
“We are here today to talk to prospective participants in our Fulbright Program. Many North-West University students have taken advantage of this opportunity in the past and we are very excited to speak to them again today. The Fulbright Program is probably our most premier exchange programme, in part because we have a long history of sending people from across the world to the United States. It goes back more than 75 years,” said Ladenson.
This is mainly done through five programmes called the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, the Fulbright South African Research Scholar Program, the Hubert H Humphrey Fellowship Program, the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program and the Fulbright US Specialist Program.
“We are by no means urging students to choose a US education above a South African one, as there are clearly some excellent universities in South Africa. Quite the opposite. However, I think one of the principles of academic study is to create a very broad understanding of the world and I think this programme really helps to further that. This programme will help to broaden students’ field of expertise and give them exposure to US academia.”
Delegates from both the US consulate and the NWU at the university’s Global Engagement Office.
