The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

UI tops in Fulbright scholars

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By Madeline Murphy Smith
[email protected]

A record-breaking number of University of Iowa students have been awarded grants that will allow them to travel the world.

Twelve students, the highest number of students to get awards for the UI, received Fulbright grants.

The University of Iowa was recognized for producing the most Fulbright students, alongside other prestigious research institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

The Fulbright program is a government-regulated international exchange program allowing students to travel to their desired country while conducting research, attending graduate school, or serving as an English teaching assistant.

Former University of Iowa student Sophie Amado received a Fulbright grant in 2014. She found out about the program her junior year at Iowa when she met a fellow Fulbright student who had gone to Korea through the grant.

“I went to informational sessions, and looked into it, and decided that Spain was the best fit for me because I had visited it before, and I have relatives from there, so I was interested in exploring my family heritage,” she said.

Amado said she worked tirelessly on her application and was eventually awarded her grant to study in Spain for 10 months.

During her time in Spain, she was surrounded with students from prestigious schools, including Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton. Amada said it made her feel like a small-town Midwesterner.
It’s great to see the Midwest being represented through Iowa at such a big program,” she said.

One of the many people who helped Amado through this vigorous process was Karen Wachsmuth, the UI Fulbright program adviser.

Wachsmuth said she was thrilled the UI was recognized as a “top producer” of Fulbright students for the first time because it shows the UI is on par with its peers.

“We’re in a very competitive category being a research institution because we’re alongside the ranks of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton,” she said.

Russ Ganim, the director of the Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, who has served on the Fulbright Faculty Review Committee for around five years, said Iowa has been continually rising in the rankings.

“It’s a remarkable achievement being recognized as a top producer of Fulbright students, because we weren’t in the rankings at all for several years, and we turned that around in a very short amount of time,” he said. “We’re making an excellent contribution to global education and making students more globally aware.”

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