​As community colleges work to prepare students for a global economy, more administrators and faculty from two-year institutions are taking advantage of international opportunities that Fulbright programs offer. 

“There’s a lot to be said for making international connections,” said Andrew Riess, assistant director for outreach with the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

Sharing the community college model abroadA two-week Fulbright program in Russia tailored specifically for community college administrators is now in its third year. Riess is also encouraging faculty to apply to become Fulbright Scholars as part of the U.S. Department of State’s effort to share overseas the role that community colleges play in the U.S.

Teaching, learning outside the classroom

Ruth Elinor Botwinik, a basic educational skills professor at Queensborough Community College (QCC) in New York, is taking part in her second Fulbright experience. She’s spending the semester in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, teaching English at the Tajikistan State Institution of Foreign Languages. In 2005, Botwinik taught English in Uzbekistan as a Fulbright grantee.

“It’s a learning experience like you couldn’t believe,” she said.

Botwinik is one of about 800 Fulbright Scholars from all academic disciplines selected by the scholar board for the spring cohort. Only a handful of recipients come from community colleges, something that program officials want to improve.

Community college leaders are well aware of the prestige of being selected for a Fulbright, both for the individual and the college.

“An award of this caliber is a reflection of the scholarship and commitment of Professor Botwinik and underscores the fact that Queensborough provides a quality education under the guidance of our outstanding faculty,” said Diane Call, interim president of QCC.

Bringing the lessons home

Applying for a second Fulbright grant wasn’t a difficult decision for Botwinik. Experiencing other cultures makes applying for the program worth the work.

“We talk a lot about globalization, but there is no substitute for really immersing yourself in another society in order to understand how the world looks from a different perspective,” said Debbie Engelen-Eigles, a sociology and women and gender studies professor at Century College in Minnesota.

Engelen-Eigles is in Korea for 10 months as a Fulbright Scholar, interviewing Korean women with disabilities to learn about their experiences in accessing health care. It was the perfect opportunity, she said, to get out of the classroom and “get my hands dirty” engaged in field research.

Engelen-Eigles is eager to share her experience with her students when she returns to her college. She noted that the project is serving as a “window into the lived experience of field research,” allowing her to give students a feel for what that entails from start to finish “in a way that textbook examples alone cannot do."