U.S. Fulbright-García Robles Grantees Come Together in Mexico

Mexico City | February 26, 2009

Today 65 U.S. students and professors who are in Mexico under the Fulbright-Garcia Robles program came together for their mid-term meetings in Mexico City to present the advances of their projects. They are in the midst of the 2008-2009 academic year at host universities located throughout Mexico, including Oaxaca, Veracruz, Jalisco, Yucatan, Sonora, and Mexico City. Their projects range from nanotechnology, to education, and management of tree fruit crops.

The mid-term meeting was inaugurated at Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) by Executive Director of COMEXUS Arturo Borja, SRE’s Director of Cultural Affairs Alberto Fierro, U.S. Embassy’s Minister Counselor for Public Affairs James Williams, and Jenny Verdaguer from the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The U.S. government’s flagship academic exchange program was established in 1946, thanks to the initiative of then-Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. Soon after, it became known worldwide as the “Fulbright Program.” The Mexico-U.S. Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (COMEXUS) oversees the Fulbright program in Mexico. The goal of COMEXUS is to promote mutual understanding between our two countries through educational and cultural exchanges.

COMEXUS offers programs for students, researchers, professors, and public school teachers and administrators of both countries. Under a 1992 agreement, all of the Fulbright scholarship programs administered by COMEXUS are financed by both governments, and the scholarship was renamed “Fulbright-García Robles” in honor of Mexican Ambassador Emeritus and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Alfonso García Robles. Mexico and the United States directly contribute a combined total of over $3.5 million dollars a year to the program and additional funds are contributed by private donors. In addition to the U.S. students and scholars in Mexico, 200 Mexicans are teaching or studying in the United States under this program this year.

“Mexico and the U.S. have much to learn from one another,” commented James Williams. “Fulbright-García Robles exchanges make it possible for students, researchers, and professionals to develop a greater bilateral understanding via their academic projects, while satisfying their intellectual curiosity about another place and culture.”

For more information about the Fulbright-García Robles Program, visit http://www.comexus.org.mx/