Campus News

UK Welcomes Pakistani Fulbright Grantees

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 28, 2014) — From November 5-9, 2014, 142 Fulbright Students from Pakistan, who recently arrived in the United States for graduate study, will travel to the University of Kentucky to participate in the Fulbright Pakistan Enrichment Seminar on Social Movements. The seminar, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Educational Foundation in Pakistan, will focus on the U.S. civil rights movement and how it has shaped contemporary life and culture today. The students will participate in site visits to organizations illustrating the impact of the civil rights movement in Kentucky, including the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. The seminar will provide participants with a greater understanding of the cultural context in which they are living, and will enable them to engage more deeply in current events and debates they encounter in American society. The seminar will also include sessions about adjusting to U.S. academic culture.

Mervin Aubespin, former associate editor at The Louisville Courier-Journal, will give the keynote address on Wednesday, November 5, at 6:30 p.m., at the Four Points by Sheraton. Members of the media are welcome to attend and should RSVP to Derrick Meads. Interviews with Fulbright Students from Pakistan and program administrators can also be arranged by request. 

Since 1950, the U.S. and Pakistani governments have partnered to operate and manage the Fulbright Program in Pakistan with the goal to help Pakistanis learn more about the United States and to help Americans learn more about Pakistan and its people. More than 2,800 Pakistanis and 880 U.S. citizens have been awarded Fulbright grants to study or research in the United States and in Pakistan, respectively. There are currently 419 Pakistani students in the United States pursuing master’s and Ph.D. degrees through the Fulbright Program, making it the largest Fulbright Foreign Student program in the world.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 360,000 participants from more than 155 countries with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

For more information and press inquiries, please contact ECA-Press at ECA-Press@state.gov

UK Media Contact: Sarah Geegan, (859) 257-5365; sarah.geegan@uky.edu