Queensborough Community College Named a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars

Published: March 04, 2016

Queensborough Community College (CUNY) is one of 15 community colleges across the country to be named a top producer of 2015-2016 Fulbright U.S. Scholars. This most recent award now designates Queensborough as a Fulbright Scholar Top Producing Institution.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Top-producing institutions are highlighted annually in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. Simran Kaur, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Geology at Queensborough received the 2015-16 Fulbright Academic and Professional Excellence Award. The award provides faculty and researchers the opportunity to share pedagogical strategies. Dr. Kaur shared her expertise in these areas, gained through the course of her career, with educators and students in India at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. There she led in-depth informational seminars, interactive workshops and hands-on direct engagement within a classroom setting. 

“This prestigious recognition further establishes Queensborough as a leading institution in the science of teaching and learning,” said Dr. Diane B. Call, President of Queensborough Community College. “I commend Dr. Kaur for her outstanding achievement and for highlighting the local impact of the Fulbright program both on the campus and in the community.”

Queensborough previously received two Fulbrights; both awarded to Ruth Elinor Botwinik, a former Professor in the Department of Academic Literacy (formerly Basic Skills). She was a recipient of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB) award for the 2011-2012 academic year. She traveled to Dushanbe, Tajikistan for the 2012 spring semester, where she was an instructor of English at the Tajikistan State Institution of Foreign Languages. Professor Botwinik was a Fulbright grantee in 2005 to teach English at the University of World Languages in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Approximately 800 Fulbright Scholars from all academic disciplines are chosen each year from around the country. Twelve are selected nationally within the category of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).

Queensborough Community College, The City University of New York, is one of the most diverse campuses nationwide, with students coming from 143 different countries, speaking 84 different languages. The ethnicity of the student body is a near perfect balance of African Americans, Asians, Caucasians and Latinos, and Queensborough is a critical gateway into higher education for many students who are the first in their families to attend college.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is supported at Queensborough Community College by Fulbright Scholar Liaison, Catherine Johnston Matto, Assistant Director, South and Central Asia / East Asia and the Pacific.

The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the United States Congress to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.

In the United States, the Institute of International Education’s Council for International Exchange of Scholars administers and coordinates the activities relevant to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program on behalf of the Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships. The Fulbright Program also awards grants to U.S. students and teachers to conduct research and teach overseas. In addition, some 4,000 new foreign Fulbright students and scholars come to the United States annually to study for graduate degrees, conduct research and teach languages.

For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright

 

 

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