Fulbright scholarship application deadlines are quickly approaching for students and those interested in applying next year should start to think about their applications now, said Johnna Reisner.
Reisner, assistant director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, said the scholarship is here for any student to apply to and the Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships will provide them with the proper support to get it done.
Fulbright is one of the most prestigious scholarship programs in the world, said Scott Collier, director of Nationally Competitive Scholarships. It’s available to students in over 140 countries.
Over the past several years, App State has been named a top dual producer of Fulbright students and scholars.
Students who are U.S. citizens are encouraged to apply through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
“During their grants, Fulbrighters will meet, work, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences,” according to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program website.
The Fulbright application can be very time consuming, Fulbright grant winner Payton Blaney said she suggests applicants give themselves plenty of time to think about their application.
“I started a little bit later than you would probably wish to start. It took me about a month and a half and that was a very speedy application process. It normally takes people the whole summer,” said Payton Blaney, Fulbright 2022-23 grant winner from App State.
The deadline for the Fulbright student program is Oct. 10 and many of the students who applied took several months to build their application.
“It’s kind of a flagship international exchange program,” said Collier. “To foster mutual understanding between the United States and other countries.”
Blaney was sent to Germany for 10 months. During her stay, she said she found that “navigating spaces in a foreign language, you are terrified, but you gain a lot of very tangible skills that will stay with you and so for that I think it was a really beneficial experience.”
Reisner said the relationships between students and faculty at App State is what makes the school a top producer for Fulbrights.
“I think that they really took my application from a decent application to an award-winning one,” said Blaney.
Quite a few faculty at App State completed the Fulbright Scholar Program, which was very enriching for them and led to them wanting to help students with their own applications, said Resiner.
Reisner also won a Fulbright grant in 2018, for an English teaching assistantship in Poland.
“It was really interesting for me to reflect on what it meant to be an American and what it meant to be an English speaker and I think that gave me a lot of different perspectives on where I was from,” Reisner said.
When applying for this scholarship, one must not only have exceptional grades, but has to prove that they will act as an effective representative of their country. Keohulian said that was one of the requirements she faced in her application process.
Collier said applicants need to think outside of the box when it comes to their applications, which is something he thinks will help applicants stand out against other applicants.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated there was still time for students to apply and did not differentiate between the Fulbright Scholar and student programs. This has been corrected in the article.
