UH Mānoa College of Education (COE) Associate Professor Deborah Zuercher received a Fulbright Scholarship for a U.S.-Germany International Education Administration Seminar. Notified by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), Zuercher will begin her exchange in Germany this October 2013.
The 2013 COE Congress Leadership Service Award recipient, Zuercher serves as the director of the America Sāmoa TTTAP Project as well as a cohort coordinator and mentor to students in the Master of Education in Teaching (MEdT) program. In Germany, she will explore non-U.S. perspectives on world events; increase her understanding of multilingual education; research innovative administrative processes that have positively impacted mobility and harmony across European countries; and consider ways to bring an international perspective back to U.S. classrooms and institutions.
The FSB, appointed by the President, establishes worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and the selection of its recipients. Established in 1964, the Fulbright Program has produced approximately 300,000 Fulbright alumni, many of whom have gone on to become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors, and teachers. Forty-three of them have been awarded Nobel Prizes.
“The Fulbright award means learning through interactions with international administrators and institutions that can provide access to new insights, fresh perspectives, and potential pathways to learning that I have not yet considered,” Zuercher said. “I travel as an ambassador of the College of Education, both to share our experiences in trans-national education and to experientially study European mastery of respectful and reciprocal linguistic, cultural, and educational border-crossing.”
Through this exchange, Zuercher will fulfill the Fulbright program’s commitment to open communication and cooperative relationships between the U.S. and the more than 150 countries that participate.
