Second Highest in Country for Public Colleges
ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. (October 23, 2009) — The prestigious Fulbright program for international grants announced this week that St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) received three student Fulbright awards this year, the second highest number awarded to any public liberal arts college in the nation. The college also had the highest number of awards for all Maryland colleges and tied with numerous prestigious private colleges, including Bates College, Reed College, and Connecticut College.
Two other Maryland colleges have been named top producers of 2009-2010 Fulbright scholars, including the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, which had two students accepted into the program, and the Maryland Institute College of Art, which had one student accepted.
SMCM grad Kalada Nemieboka ’09, of Randallstown, Maryland, has received a Fulbright grant to teach political science in Indonesia for nine months. Nemieboka majored in political science and minored in Spanish. While teaching in Indonesia, Nemieboka plans to study Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, the three most prevalent religions in Indonesia.
Monica Kim ’09, of Columbia, Maryland, has received a Fulbright grant to teach English at a secondary school in Taiwan for nine months. Kim is a history and Chinese culture and language double major and an Asian studies minor. She will continue her studies in Mandarin Chinese while in Taiwan, as well as learn more about Taiwanese culture and history.
Clare Zuraw ’05, of Ellicott City, Maryland, has received a Fulbright grant to assist in teaching English at the University of Banja Luka in Banja Luka, Bosnia, and in Herzegovina, for nine months. Zuraw graduated from SMCM with a major in anthropology and sociology and a minor in French language. She is finishing her master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) at the University of Rochester in New York.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers students funding for one academic year of study, research or assistant teaching abroad. More than 1,500 American students were offered grants to work in more than 125 countries this fall. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. It was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to “enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” Recipients conduct research in countries overseas, and their foreign counterparts engage in similar activities in the United States. Fulbright receives its primary source of funding through an annual appropriation from Congress. Participating governments and host institutions also contribute financially.