SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Ted Schwalbe of the Department of Communication has received a Fulbright Specialist Award to work with A. Xhuvani University in Elbasan, Albania, during May and June. Dr. Schwalbe has previously received Fulbright Traditional Awards to Bulgaria (1997) and Hungary (2004) and Specialist Awards to Swaziland (2002) and Namibia (2007).
“It will be an honor to represent Fredonia in Albania,” Schwalbe said. “The country holds a special place in my heart since it was the site of my first professional international experience in 1994.”
Fredonia has an outstanding track record when it comes to faculty receiving the prestigious Fulbright awards. Dr. Iclal VanVesenbeeck (Department of English) and Dr. William Brown (Department of Biology) recently completed traditional Fulbright assignments. Paul Chambers, a graduate student in the School of Music, is currently in South Africa on a Student Fulbright Award.
The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have taught, studied or conducted research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States.
Over 285,000 emerging leaders in their professional fields have received Fulbright awards, including individuals who later became heads of government, Nobel Prize winners and leaders in education, business, journalism, the arts and other fields.
The Fulbright Specialists Program was created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program. It provides short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post-secondary, academic institutions around the world.
The Specialist Program is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State and administered by World Learning.
In addition to Fulbright Awards, Schwalbe has also received four major international media training grants from the U.S. government. These were in Albania (1994), southern Africa (1996), Bulgaria (1997), and Turkey (2008). He lives with his wife, Joanne Kelley, in Arkwright.
