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Senator
J. Williams Fulbright |
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The
United States Congress created the Fulbright Program
in 1946, immediately after World War II. Senator
J. William Fulbright, sponsor of the legislation,
saw it as a step toward building international
cooperation.
Since the establishment of the Fulbright Program,
more than 42,000 Americans and 158,000 participants
from other countries have benefited from the Fulbright
experience. Currently, the U.S. Student Program
annually awards approximately 1,000 grants to
U.S. citizens to study overseas and approximately
3,000 non U.S. national students to study in U.S.
The Fulbright Program came to our parts of the
world on November 9, 1964, when the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the United
States of America signed the Agreement on financing
the educational exchange program. Until the dissolution
of Yugoslavia, several thousands awards were issued
under this Agreement to scholars, researchers,
artists, university professors and students who
facilitated the establishment of academic ties
and links between Yugoslav and American universities
and contributed to the improvement of the traditionally
good relationships between the two countries.
In the early 1990s the Program was temporarily
suspended in order to be renewed after the democratic
changes in our country had taken place. In extremely
difficult conditions of 1992, the Fulbright Alumni
Association was instituted as an independent entity.
By universal vote, its first Chairman became Dr.
Vojin Sulovic, a distinguished scholar and humanitarian,
professor of Belgrade University School of Medicine
and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
and Arts. The Fulbright Commission Program Officers
Ksenija Todorovic and Bojan Drndic were instrumental
in maintaining the activities of the Association,
which was under a strong repression from the current
authoritarian regime.
Today, we are reviving the Association in much
more conducive and easier conditions. In harmony
with the traditions of our mutual great scholars,
Tesla and Pupin, we believe in the sharing of
knowledge. We should learn from one another, and
from our common experiences that have had magnificent
ascents, but also traumatic falls.
The Fulbright Alumni Association will endevor
to improve the conditions of academic exchange
between the U.S.A. and Serbia and Montenegro,
and assemble as many of former grantees as possible.
However, we believe that our most important task
is to work toward the renewal of the bilateral
intergovernmental agreement on educational exchange
between the two countries.
The Association now incorporates Ron Brown alumni
as well, and the next step would be its expansion
toward the Hubert Humphrey alumni and JFDP. |
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