Centre a "Top Producer of Fulbright Winners"

RELEASED: November 6, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—The Chronicle of Higher Education listed Centre College as a top producer of Fulbright Awards among U.S. institutions in its Oct. 24, 2008 issue. Five Centre students won the prestigious award in 2008, garnering Centre a top spot –tied for 18th among bachelor's degree institutions. (A sixth Centre student was awarded a one-year teaching assistantship in France also sponsored, in part, by the Fulbright organization.)Institutions are grouped according to the 2005 classification established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, an independent policy and research center.

The Fulbright program dates to 1946, when Sen. William Fulbright of Arkansas proposed a program to promote world peace by "increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries." A Fulbright stipend provides international transportation, living expenses, and, for research grants, university tuition. The awards to undergraduates generally involve a research project proposed by the student and an affiliation with a university. However there are also grants to teach English as a foreign language. Fulbright Fellows receive full grants, travel grants, and/or teaching assistantships that allow them to pursue one academic year of self-designed study and/or research in a foreign country.

The Fulbright Program has provided more than 250,000 participants – chosen for their leadership potential — with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic and cultural institutions, exchange ideas, and embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants.

Fulbright alumni include Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, governors and senators, ambassadors and artists, prime ministers and heads of state, professors and scientists, Supreme Court Justices, and CEOs.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.