Olin is a Top Producer of 2020-2021 U.S. Fulbright Students

February 22, 2021

Olin College of Engineering has been recognized as a top producer of U.S. Fulbright Students.

Each year the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announces the top producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program.

In its 21-year history, Olin has produced a prolific 21 Fulbright students. The College is consistently included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produce the most Fulbright U.S. Students.

“We are thrilled to receive this recognition again from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs,” stated Sally Phelps, Olin’s Director of Post-Graduate Planning. “Our students make excellent candidates for the Fulbright, and the program provides them the opportunity to travel and contribute their engineering talents in all corners of the world.”

Olin College of Engineering students sitting at a table in a sticky note-filled classroom

Olin students sit at a classroom table recently, surrounded by an assortment of sticky notes.

Olin’s 2020-2021 Fulbright students are Gretchen Rice ’20, who received an English Teaching Assistant Award in Taiwan and Qun (Annie) Zeng ’16, who received a Research Award in The Netherlands. The Oliners originally received their awards in 2019-2020, but Fulbright delayed the start of the grants to January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 2,200 students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study are offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English and conduct research abroad each year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in over 140 countries throughout the world.

The Fulbright Program was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Fulbright is the world’s largest and most diverse international educational exchange program. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  2021 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program.