Sourced from: http://www.fulbright.org.nz/
Fulbright New Zealand recently announced the list of 22 New Zealand students who have been selected for Fulbright scholarships to pursue postgraduate study or research in the United States of America in the next academic year. This was announced during an annual Fulbright awards ceremony at parliament hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Murray McCully, and attended by 250 alumni and supporters of the Fulbright exchange programme.
Hon Murray McCully, Minister of Foreign Affairs and an Honorary Chairperson of Fulbright New Zealand, addresses the 2011 Fulbright New Zealand Awards Ceremony.
The 22 newly announced recipients of Fulbright New Zealand Graduate Awards include students who will study or research in fields as diverse as mechatronics engineering, infectious disease epidemiology, water resource valuation, indigenous law, pharmaceutical policy, film production and operatic directing. Also recognised at the awards ceremony were 39 recipients of various Fulbright Scholar Awards for more advanced academics, artists and professionals, and five participants in likeminded NZ-US exchange fellowship programmes administered by Fulbright New Zealand – the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowships in Public Policy and the Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice.
Fulbright awards are for New Zealanders and Americans to study, research, teach and present their work in each other’s countries. Grantees are selected for academic excellence, leadership potential and ambassadorial qualities. Commenting on these attributes at last night’s ceremony, Hon David Huebner, US Ambassador to New Zealand, said that “[The programme’s founder] Senator J. William Fulbright believed, as I do, that people-to-people exchanges are the best forms of diplomacy, that the best way of building mutual respect and understanding is to send people abroad to form their own conclusions, and that if we just put enough smart, open-minded young people together the world would become a better place.”
