Diversity Summer Programs
- Diversity-Students in Alaska
Additional funding from the US Department of State once more enabled the Fulbright Commission to sponsor 10 students from Germany with immigrant backgrounds to participate in 5-week summer institutes in the U.S. The University of Alaska at Anchorage hosted a multinational group of European student leaders in education, including 5 diversity students from Germany. The institute offered the opportunity to learn about the American systems of primary, secondary, and higher education, U.S. education policy, American pedagogical practices, and integration and diversity in American schools. The students joined in community service activities, engaged in educational travel, and went through intensive English language training.
- European Student Leaders in New York City
Two additional summer institutes, hosted by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and by Drexel University in Philadelphia, focussed on leadership development and civic engagement through academic coursework, English language training, educational excursions and community service activities. The programs were directed at 40 European student leaders from Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom, including 5 students from Germany.
With considerable additional financial support from the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the German-American Fulbright Program another group of 16 beginning students with immigrant backgrounds was sponsored for a 5-week summer program at California State University at East Bay. This program concentrated on American Culture and Civilization, Literature and Critical Thinking, English language training, the perfection of presentation skills and featured workplace visits in American business enterprises. One of the highlights was the visit of the German Foreign Minister and his speech on “Energy, Climate, Security – A new Transatlantic Agenda for the 21st Century”.
- The group of Diversity Students supported by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the German-American Fulbright Program
Altogether 25 students were sponsored to participate in the 2007 summer institutes of four regionally and institutionally quite different U.S. universities. The responses from the participants, however, were uniformly positive. For almost all of the students the summer institute had been their first stay in the U.S. They were overwhelmed with new impressions, and in many instances found they had misconceptions about America which needed to be revised. Many students stressed the great importance of this experience for their personal and intercultural development and that the 5-week program had encouraged them to consider a longer stay in the U.S. during the further course of their academic study.
„Es wird mir schwer fallen, all die neuen interessanten Menschen und die lieb gewonnene Umgebung wieder zu verlassen. Ich werde viel mitnehmen – neue Freunde, neues Wissen, neue Erkenntnisse über die USA und ihre Menschen (…) und das neu gewonnene Verständnis für „The American Way of Life“.
Read an acticle by Dureid Qazzazi about his experience as a Diversity-Student in the U.S.