Claremont, Calif. (February 19, 2018)—US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and The Chronicle of Higher Education name Pitzer College a Top Producer of Fulbright US Scholars and Fulbright US Students for 2017-18. The College makes its first appearance on the most Fulbright US Scholars list, ranking second in the bachelor’s institutions category. Pitzer also ranks sixth for most Fulbright US Students among undergraduate institutions. Pitzer is one of only 16 institutions in the country to be named a Top Producer for both the Fulbright US Student and Scholar programs, according to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Last year, Pitzer professors Daniel A. Segal and Suyapa Portillo Villeda ’96 were both awarded 2017-18 Fulbright US Scholar Research Fellowships. Segal, Jean M. Pitzer professor of anthropology and professor of history, was awarded a Fulbright grant to examine entry of the Brazilian state into the northern Amazon. Portillo Villeda, assistant professor of Chicano/a-Latino/a transnational studies, is investigating narratives of migration from the point of view of Hondurans, focusing on the experiences of women and LGBTI youth. Their two awards tied Pitzer for second place on the list with Bucknell University, Colby College, Dickinson College, Swarthmore and the US Naval Academy.
For the Fulbright US Student program, this marks the tenth year in a row that Pitzer has been named a top producer among undergraduate institutions. Thirteen recent Pitzer graduates, 12 of whom were counted on the Chronicle’s list, are now serving as 2017-18 Fulbright Fellows across the globe. Since 1994, Pitzer students and alumni have won more than 240 student Fulbright grants.
Last year, The Claremont Colleges received a combined 33 student Fulbrights—Pitzer (12), Pomona College (11), Scripps College (6) and Claremont McKenna College (4)—outpacing large research institutions such as Harvard, Stanford and Princeton universities. Pitzer and Pomona colleges are the only undergraduate institutions in California among the Top 10.
Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program, the US government’s flagship international educational exchange program, has provided more than 380,000 participants with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
Through the Fulbright US Scholar Program, which operates in over 125 countries, more than 1,100 U.S. college and university faculty and administrators, professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers and independent scholars are awarded Fulbright grants to teach and/or conduct research annually. The Fulbright US Student Program operates in over 140 countries throughout the world and provides more than 1,900 Fulbright Program grants to students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields to study, teach English and conduct research abroad each year.
