Placing Fulbrights

By Meredith Guinness

As Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Miriam Gogol has many duties, including advising students, working with the Dean on interdisciplinary programs, resolving departmental conflicts and, once a year, teaching a graduate class on U.S. working women.

Then there's her passion - Fairfield's Fulbright program. Since joining the administration in 2003, Dr. Gogol and a team of dedicated professors on the Fulbright Committee and Advisory Board have made Fairfield one of the most successful universities in the country at securing coveted Fulbright grants for some of our most promising students.

In 2006, five graduates were chosen for Fulbrights, tying a record set in 2000 for the number of Fairfield students to receive the most prestigious international scholarship awarded by the U.S. government. In fact, for the second time in three years, Fairfield had more Fulbright scholars than any other non-research university with master's programs in the country.

As this year's recipients travel to China, Canada, Germany, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, they will truly be living out all that Fairfield holds dear.

"It's living and learning with a capital L and a capital L," says Dr. Gogol, relaxing in her sunny Canisius Hall office. "The application process is arduous, but I tell them, ‘You'll never have this experience again. You're going to be a real academic, a scholar.' It's life-altering."

Securing a Fulbright is a lesson in itself, and Fairfield is distinctive in the way it shepherds students through the process. Dr. Gogol and her committee target some students early in their Fairfield careers, often before they've considered life after graduation.

"If I'm teaching a class and I notice a very bright first-year student, I'll tell Miriam, ‘watch out for this one,'" says Dr. Alan Katz, professor of politics in CAS, who is a member of the Fulbright Committee.

Dr. Gogol speaks about Fulbrights at the annual Dean's List dinner hosted by Dean of Freshmen Dr. Deb Chappell. In addition to international studies and other majors, she considers students in the Honor's Program and in education courses, who might be interested in rewarding international teaching assistantships.

An honor and an opportunity, the Fulbright funds students to go abroad for a full year after graduation to engage in independent research, study, work, or teaching. To win a grant, a student's proposal must be approved by the National Screening Committee at the International Institute of Education (IIE) before heading for the prospective country, where it undergoes a second review. With 5,623 applicants vying for just 1,207 grants in 2005-06, it is a highly selective process.

That's where Dr. Gogol and her committee come in. During their junior year, interested students meet with Dr. Gogol several times to refine their proposals before twice going before the University Fulbright Committee, which combs the applications for weaknesses. Because students never meet face-to-face with the IIE panels, their written proposals must be strong.

"I try to prepare the applicants to be thick skinned and to be committed," Dr. Gogol says. "Part of our process is to educate them. They learn about grants and grant writing, networking nationally and internationally, and engaging in scholarship overseas. We consider the process a great education in and of itself."

Dr. Gogol speaks from experience: In 1999, she was awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholarship to teach advanced-level seminars at Ostrava University in the Czech Republic. In recent years, IIE has emphasized immersion in the foreign culture, so Fairfield's committee now requires that a community service component be part of each application. For instance, Laura Woelfein '06, who is teaching recent immigrants to Germany this year, hosts an evening each week with the students' parents so that they can come together and discuss their cultures.

"I see it as a people-to-people ambassadorship," says Dr. Danke Li, assistant professor of history and a member of the Fulbright Advisory Board. "It's important to make being part of a global movement part of our educational goals. What Fairfield is doing is cutting edge."

Working with Fulbright applicants is a commitment, but it's an effort worth making.

"In addition to showing understanding and respect for other cultures, we hope our students are expressing the Jesuit values of collaboration and concern for others," Dr. Gogol says. "It's so demanding and the students get so much out of it that I think - and I know others agree - it's worth the investment."