Fulbright Program Celebrates 50 Years in Poland

Senator J. William Fulbright

"Our future is not in the stars but in our minds and hearts.  Creative leadership and liberal education, which in fact go together, are the first requirements for a hopeful future for humankind.  Fostering these – leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures – was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program that I was privileged to sponsor in the U.S. Senate over forty years ago.  Its is a modest program with an immodest aim – the achievement in international affairs of a regime more civilized, rational, and humane than the empty system of power of the past.  I believed in that possibility when I began.  I still do."

                         J. William Fulbright, The Price of Empire, 1989, page xi

The year 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Fulbright educational exchange program in Poland and a landmark year for Polish Fulbright.  The Polish-American Fulbright Program is a key element in our strong bilateral relationship.  Over 50 years, the program has trained many of Poland’s leaders in academia, business, government, and civil society.  On March 10, 2008, the United States and Poland signed a new Fulbright Agreement increasing significantly the financial contribution of the Polish side and thereby expanding opportunities for exchange of students, scholars, and teachers.  This expanded program will be offered to Polish candidates for the first time in 2009. 

We plan to begin the year in January by joining with Fulbright in a gala celebration of the program’s activity in Poland, which will include a conference, an alumni dinner, and guest speakers that will include Harriet Fulbright herself, the widow of the late Senator J. William Fulbright.  American historians Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson, authors of A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron, Forgotten Heroes of World War II, will also visit Poland to help mark the celebrations. 

Senator J. William Fulbright (1905-1995) is one of the most distinguished Senators in U.S. Congressional history and the longest-serving Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  His most famous legacy is the Fulbright Program of international exchanges, established in 1946.  Fulbright provides thousands of grants to U.S. students, teachers, professionals, and scholars to study, teach, lecture, and conduct research in more than 155 countries, and to their foreign counterparts to engage in similar activities in the United States.

To read Senator Fulbright’s full biography, click here. 

Harriet Mayor Fulbright is President of the J. William & Harriet Fulbright Center, a non-profit organization which serves to advance the work of Ms. Fulbright’s late husband, Senator J. William Fulbright, and to continue her own lifework. The purpose of the Fulbright Center is to promote world peace and nonviolent means of resolving conflicts through international collaborations and education programs. 

To read Harriet Fulbright’s full biography, click here.