Hopkins' yield of Fulbright scholars has doubled from last year, bringing the number of recipients to 12. This group includes three winners from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and two students from the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Though the number of successful students from Hopkins in the Fulbright competition doubled from the 2004-2005 academic year, John Bader, associate dean for academic programs and advising, stressed that the numbers are not extremely telling of the situation.
"Overall the trend in the number of applicants is upward at Hopkins, as students hear about our success with the Fulbright program. Our success rates put us up in the top tier nationally with much larger schools. Institutions like the University of California at Berkeley, for example, might put up 135 applicants while we will put up 25 -- but nearly half of our applicants are successful, which is really unheard of nationwide," he said.
"Nonetheless the number doesn't really tell you too much. The size of the application pool varies every year. The competitions also differ by countries as places like Great Britain tend to be more competitive than the others and each year more and more people apply to Italy, France and Germany," Bader said.
Though some institutions that have historically done well in these programs, like Duke University, have entire committees dedicated to grooming students from as early as freshman year for competitive scholarships like Fulbright, Truman and Rhodes, Bader emphasized that the role of the University should not be to hold a student's hand through the entire process.
"Students need to make their own initiative; we are recruiting and nourishing Rhodes scholars, but we cannot create them. I have great confidence in our students, they are great candidates, and they must go and take their chances," he said.
Considerable debate has arisen over the advantages of such scholarship offices like that of Duke University and whether or not they are as successful in creating a greater number of winners.
"The University of Arkansas, for example, has a large scholarship office but they have not been as successful as Johns Hopkins in the Fulbright competition -- which arises primarily because of the difference in the quality of students themselves," Bader said.
Bader mentioned the United States Navel Academy, which has won the fourth highest number of Rhodes scholarships in the nation as of 2006 behind Harvard, Princeton and Yale, as the most ideal model.
"Their History Department has regular meetings with students, discussing cultural and current events. Again, we need dedicated faculties. It might be more competent to raise students' awareness than to merely help or give feedback with their applications," he said.
Hopkins faculty, as a whole, has reportedly shown considerable support for student applicants and their proposals.
"I sent a broadcast e-mail to much of the Johns Hopkins faculty -- close to 450 individuals -- and about half responded saying that they would be interested in volunteering and participating in the Fulbright proposal panels. What this said to me was that faculty at Hopkins is definitely enthusiastic about supporting students in these competitions," Bader said.
The Fulbright scholarship financed Hopkins students' projects in Germany, Italy, France, India, Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain.
Jeremy Caradonna, a doctoral candidate in the History Department traveled to France to study the academic essay competitions of 18th century France.
Caradonna investigated how academic essays provided a public venue for expression of Enlightenment ideas. Marissa Lowman, newly graduated with Writing Seminars and German majors, received a teaching assistantship grant and taught English as a second language at a German high school. Meaghan Mulholland studied the Sicilian puppet theater, the opera dei pupi in Italy.
Established in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Scholarship is a flagship program promoting international academic relations.
It offers opportunities for candidates to undertake international graduate studies, advanced research and teaching worldwide. The purpose of this program, as the founder Senator J. William Fulbright has stated, is "fostering leadership, learning and empathy between cultures."
Fulbright Scholarship program awards more than 1,200 grants annually to U.S. students annually to study abroad. It is designed for college graduates, masters, doctoral candidates, young professionals and artists.
The awards support scholars looking to advance their studies or work in countries of their choices with a broad extent of disciplines.
The academic fields stretch from performing art, social sciences, and business to engineering, education, physical sciences and communication. Successful applicants from institutions all over the United States receive either full or travel grants to cover their travel expenses, tuitions, room and board and living maintenance.
