What is the Fulbright Scholar Program?

In a few weeks, I'm going to begin my stay at the University of Costa Rica as a Fulbright Scholar. Here's some background on the Fulbright Program:

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the US government, designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the US and other countries. It was established in 1946 by then-Senator J William Fulbright of Arkansas and is sponsored by the US Dept of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. More than 300,000 Fulbrighters from the US and other countries have participated in the program in the past 60 years, and awards approximately 8,000 new grants annually.

I specifically applied to the Fulbright US Scholar Program, which sends 1,200 American scholars and professionals annually to about 125 countries, to lecture and/or conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

The most popular program is the Fulbright US Student Program, meant for US graduating college seniors, grad students, young professionals and artists to study abroad (research) for 1 academic year.

The Fulbright Program supplies the stipend, travel and living expenses, and some logistical support, while everything else is done independently (finding housing, a university host, research project etc.)

There's also plenty of grants for foreign students/professionals to come to the US and study/work.

As a disclaimer, I should say that the opinions revealed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the Fulbright Program or US government.

I've still got a lot of stuff to figure out before I leave, but am truly excited!