The U.S. Department of State and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) share a nearly three decade partnership to increase awareness of international exchange programs and career opportunities at the Department of State among the students, faculty, and staff at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). This partnership highlights issues of importance for the Hispanic community while expanding opportunities for education abroad and federal careers. The Department of State and HACU renewed this partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding, signed between HACU’s president, Dr. Antonio Flores, PhD, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, in 2022.
At the signing, Secretary Blinken remarked that the two organizations will “keep working together to recruit students, to recruit faculty, to recruit staff from HACU colleges and universities to participate in our exchange programs around the world, like the Fulbright Program or the Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship.”
Recognizing the important contributions made by HSIs, Secretary Blinken commented, “Hispanic colleges and universities are home to researchers working to solve some of the most pressing challenges of our time that are going to affect the lives of millions of people, like developing innovative methods for removing carbon dioxide from atmosphere, finding new treatments for cancer. The institutions are training tomorrow’s microbiologists, their labor economists, science teachers, psychologists, and yes, diplomats, among many other fields that are enriching our communities and also enriching our lives.”
The Fulbright Program supports that research and training through funded opportunities for HACU-member institutions to forge long-term research partnerships and international collaborations.
“Fulbright is one of those programs that makes a huge impact for individuals and institutions. Perhaps as valuable as the financial support are the connections Fulbright provides in locations around the world,” said Victoria Jones, Chief Global Affairs Officer at the University of California, Irvine, which has been recognized as a Fulbright HSI leader each year since 2021. “Our students and scholars do not travel alone; they join a Fulbright family that offers invaluable partners and future lifelong friends. Fulbright returnees link the UCI community in a global network of people of goodwill.” UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman, who recently completed his term as a member of HACU’s governing board, said, “We are proud of our status as a Hispanic-serving institution and of the support we offer all of our students.” He commented that continuing to receive this important Fulbright recognition is a “reflection of the commitment of UCI’s faculty and staff and the talent and dedication of our students.”
In addition to recent alums and graduate students directly embarking on Fulbright Programs to places like Spain and South Korea, students on UCI’s campus benefit from the international perspectives of professors who conducted Fulbright research abroad. Law professor and International Justice Clinic director David Kaye recently returned from Sweden’s Lund University, where he served as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, one of Europe’s most prominent centers for human rights law. When he returned to UCI, he integrated his new research into his courses, particularly his findings (now published) on how Sweden and Denmark legally responded to Koran burnings throughout Scandinavia, and its implications for international human rights law.
UCI students also benefited from hearing international perspectives by hosting Professor Jasmina Casales-Terre from Spain as a visiting lecturer through the Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Fund. They learned from her expertise in mechanical, aerospace, and materials sciences with UCI’s students and faculty, paving the way for future international research collaborations.
Dr. Mildred García, EdD, Chancellor of The California State University (CSU), commented that the recognition of Cal Poly Pomona, California State University, Northridge, San Diego State University, and San José State University as Fulbright HSI Leaders in 2024 continues the CSU system’s longstanding commitment to the Fulbright Program. Several additional CSU institutions have been recognized over the four years of the Fulbright HSI Leaders initiative. García remarked, “I am confident that our engagement with the program will continue to grow as we advance our shared priority of teaching our talented and diverse students – the world’s future leaders – to become active and engaged participants in our increasingly interconnected, interdependent global economy and society.” García, a two-time Fulbrighter herself, also reflected that her Fulbright experiences “have enriched my personal and professional lives in immeasurable ways.”
At the University of Houston, Fulbright is part of the university’s larger goal to develop forward-thinking global citizens. For President Renu Khator, recognition as a Fulbright HSI Leader affirms the cultural and academic support that the university provides as it “strives to ensure an environment of inclusion and success for all.” Former Ambassador Michael Pelletier, the inaugural director of UH’s Institute for Global Engagement, credits “the superb and engaged network of Fulbright alumni and faculty across the University” for creating a “Fulbright culture” on campus.
Fulbrighters such as Johnny Zapata show the promise of the relationship developed between the U.S. Department of State and HACU-member institutions to cultivate talented diplomats. A first-generation college student and honors student at University of Houston, Zapata first applied to the U.S. Department of State’s Gilman Scholarship to go abroad to Azerbaijan. In his senior year, Fulbright Program Adviser and Executive Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards Ben Rayder supported his application for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) to Turkey. Zapata then went on to pursue a master’s in international relations at Texas A&M University with the help of the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, another program of the U.S. Department of State, which prepares promising students for the foreign service. Zapata now serves as a Foreign Service Officer in Brazil.
At Florida International University (FIU), Susana Feurtes, a recent graduate of FIU’s business school, conducted a 10-month Fulbright U.S. Student Program research project on Bahrain’s business incubator programs for women entrepreneurs. The experience has allowed Feurtes to tap a global network of entrepreneurs, exemplified by her participation in the Sixth Gulf Business Incubators and Accelerators Conference in November 2023, and to share her knowledge through her podcast Forwardpreneurs.
Vice Provost Heather Russell also appreciates the opportunity that Fulbright provides for faculty to “serve as FIU ambassadors and advance our foundational goals of serving our global community, fostering cross-cultural academic engagement and creating greater international understanding.”
Each of these Fulbrighters have fulfilled the goals of the partnership between HACU and the State Department by becoming globally engaged citizens and contributing to people-to-people exchange and public service.
Secretary Blinken remarked that HSIs reflect the diversity of the United States, which is “the greatest strength that we bring to the table.” He commented, “Our diversity makes us stronger. It makes us smarter. It makes us more creative. It brings different perspectives, different viewpoints, different experiences to every single problem we have before us.”
For institutions interested in engaging with Fulbright, the Program provides resources and training for a network of Fulbright Program Advisers and Fulbright Scholar Liaisons on U.S. campuses to make sure that students, faculty and administrators are aware of the opportunities the Program offers for individuals to study, teach and conduct research abroad, and for their institutions to host top students and faculty from around the world.