“Discovering Cultures, Destinations and People Around the World,” the fall meeting of the Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Fulbright Association, will be held on Saturday, Oct. 30, from 10 a.m. until noon in the Butler Library 210 on the campus of Buffalo State College at 1300 Elmwood Ave.

The program, which is free and open to the public, seeks to make faculty, administrators, students and professionals aware of the various Fulbright programs and to encourage these scholars to apply for them. Another purpose is to expose individuals to cross-cultural and multi-cultural opportunities through Fulbright research and lectureship programs, in addition to offering an occasion for collaboration between former and future Fulbrighters.

Featured speakers include:

Maria S. Bettua, assistant director for the Europe Eurasia Unit from the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars;

Christina Zawierucha, Ph.D., Fulbright-Hays Scholarship recipient to India, Egypt and Isrea and Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar to Japan;

Jean Gounard, Ph.D., Buffalo State College Director of International Student Affairs and Fulbright Senior Scholar to West Germany and Fulbright Grant to the United States ;

Keith Henderson, Buffalo State College professor of political science and Fulbright Senior Scholar to Iran and Croatia; and,

Carol Logan Patitu, Ph.D., Buffalo State College associate professor of educational foundations and Fulbright Senior Scholar to South Africa.

The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government‘s flagship program in international education exchange, was proposed to Congress in 1945 by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, who saw the proposed program as a much-needed vehicle for promoting “mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries of the world” in the aftermath of World War II. His vision was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946.

Fulbright grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since its inception, the program has given more than 250,000 participants chosen for their leadership potential the opportunity to observe each other‘s political, economic and cultural institutions – foreign academics and professionals who have taught or conducted research in the U.S. as visiting Fulbright Scholars and U.S. faculty and professionals who have engaged in similar activities in more than 140 countries abroad in a wide variety of academic and professional fields ranging from journalism and urban planning to music and zoology.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Under a cooperative agreement with the Bureau, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars assists in the administration of the Fulbright Scholar Program for faculty and professionals. Overseas, it is administered by bi-national Fulbright Commissions or by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassies. The presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board is responsible for the final selection of all Fulbright grantees and the supervision of the Fulbright Program worldwide. An annual appropriation made by the Congress to the Department of State primarily funds the Fulbright Program.

For more information, contact Gounard at (716) 878-5331.