Bucknell Among Top Producers of Fulbright U.S. Student Awards

Bucknell University is among the top U.S. colleges and universities where students received Fulbright Awards for 2019-20. Each year the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange initiative. The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes the list of top Fulbright institutions annually.

Bucknell ranked among the top 40 baccalaureate institutions based on its performance in the 2019-20 competition when four students won Fulbright awards through the Fulbright U.S. Students Program. Bucknell Fulbright recipients were:

• Julia Stevens '20, a French & Francophone studies and Russian studies major, who earned an English teaching Fulbright to supplement local language instruction in schools in Russia
• Marie Catanese '20, an international relations and environmental studies major who earned an English teaching grant for Malaysia
• Maren Burling '19, an anthropology and Spanish double major whose English-teaching Fulbright will take her to Mexico in 2021-22
• Soni Madnani '20, an economics, political science and Spanish triple major who earned an English teaching Fulbright to travel to Indonesia in 2021-22

Fulbright cancelled all travel in 2020-21 due to COVID-19.

"We are very proud of all our Fulbright applicants," says Margaret Marr, Bucknell's director of undergraduate fellowships and research. "In recent years, Bucknell students have become increasingly competitive for Fulbright awards."

In the 2019-20 competition, nine Bucknell students applied, seven advanced to become semifinalists, and four won the award. In the current 2020-21 competition, 10 Bucknell students applied and eight are semifinalists awaiting final decision.

"Our students work very hard on their applications. I'm delighted they are finding such success," Marr says.

The Fulbright Program was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries. Fulbright is the world's largest and most diverse international educational exchange program. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Since its inception in 1946, over 400,000 people from all backgrounds — recent university graduates, teachers, scientists and researchers, artists and more — have participated in the Fulbright Program.