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Office for Global Education

Purchase Earns a Competitive Fulbright-Hays Award

The grant will fund curriculum development and language immersion in Benin for faculty and area K–12 teachers.

The Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Award

The Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, will fund six Purchase College faculty members and six New York area K-12 teachers to participate in four-week curriculum development and immersive foreign language program in Benin, West Africa, in the summer of 2023.

Participants will explore the intersection of Beninese languages, culture, history, educational systems, politics, and more, then infuse the courses they currently teach and create new ones.

They will share resources with other educators upon their return, expanding the reach of the program.

Purchase’s Fulbright Group Project will be facilitated in Benin by a number of the college’s international partners, including the African School of Economics, the Zinsou Foundation, Centre Choréographe Multicorps, and Atchê Binon Art & Culture.

Fulbright Sweep

With the Fulbright-Hays Award, Purchase College has reached a milestone with the Fulbright program. In the past year and a half, Purchase sponsored students in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, a faculty member in the U.S. Scholar Program, a visiting Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, and now the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Award. Read more about each below.

Fulbright Stories

William Byram ’20 (dance) received a Fulbright Trinity Laban Award in Dance to pursue an MFA in Choreography in the United Kingdom for the 2021–2022 academic year to study at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Caleb Dowden ’21 (dance) received a Fulbright Study Research Award in the Creative/Performing Arts for study in Benin.

Laura Ricciardi, assistant professor of arts management and lecturer in entrepreneurship in the arts, won a Fulbright Award to teach at the University of Messina in Sicily, Italy, ​during the 2021-22 academic year.

Marcela Gbeffa, an internationally renowned Beninese dancer and choreographer was named a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) for the Conservatory of Dance for 2022-23.

Gbeffa returns to campus after (T)HERE: Collaborate—An Artistic Residency in 2019. 

More About Fulbright Programs

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program creates connections in a complex and changing world. In partnership with more than 140 countries worldwide, the program offers unparalleled opportunities in all academic disciplines to passionate and accomplished graduating college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals from all backgrounds.

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 800 awards in more than 135 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world. College and university faculty, as well as artists and professionals from a wide range of fields can join over 400,000 Fulbrighters who have come away with enhanced skills, new connections, and greater mutual understanding.

The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) Program is a unique Fulbright Scholar Program initiative that is specifically driven by the goals of U.S. institutions of higher education to enhance internationalization efforts on their campuses. Through the S-I-R Program, institutions host a scholar from outside of the United States for a semester or full academic year to teach courses, assist in curriculum development, guest lecture, develop study abroad/exchange partnerships and engage with the campus and the local community.

Fulbright-Hays Programs provide overseas funding to current and prospective U.S. educators to participate in advanced overseas study and research. The GPA program  contributes to the development and improvement of the study of modern foreign languages and area studies in the United States by providing training opportunities for faculty, teachers, and upperclassmen and/or graduate students in foreign countries outside of Western Europe and where the United States has diplomatic representation. Awards are made under the program to conduct overseas group projects in research, training, curriculum development, and advanced foreign language study.

Fulbright Programs at Purchase College are administered by Anne Kern, Dean for Global Strategy and International Programs, through the Office for Global Education.