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Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 15, 2004

First Afghan Fulbrighters in 25 Years Arrive in the United States

The first group of Afghan Fulbright grantees to come to the United States from Afghanistan in 25 years has arrived in the United States to begin study at American universities. Six students arrived over the weekend, with an additional 11 students expected to arrive over the summer. This group of Afghan Fulbright grantees will study in the United States in graduate coursework for one year, starting in the fall of 2004. The students will focus on areas that assist Afghanistan's national development, such as law, political science, public administration, economics, English language teaching and journalism.

The first six Afghan Fulbrighters have a brief stay in Washington for orientation sessions before departing for the University of Oregon, the University of Arizona, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Ohio University, and the University of California-Santa Cruz for pre-academic programming. Their time in Washington coincides with a visit here by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is himself an alumnus of U.S. Department of State exchange programs, having come to the United States under the auspices of the International Visitor program in 1987.

Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia S. Harrison, who oversees the Fulbright program and other academic and professional exchange programs for the Department of State, marked the arrival of the first students this week by saying "I know that these Afghan Fulbrighters will be making many valuable contributions, as envoys from their country and as students on U.S. campuses over the next year, and as leaders in their communities when they return at the conclusion of their studies."

Between the years 1963 and 1979, over 250 Afghan students and over 75 American students and scholars participated in the Afghan-U.S. Fulbright program, before the suspension of the program in 1979.

Since its creation in 1946, 255,000 individuals have participated in the Fulbright program, with 96,400 from the United States and 158,600 from other countries. The Fulbright program operates bilaterally with 151 countries around the world. Fulbright alumni include Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, governors and members of Congress, ambassadors and artists, prime ministers and heads of state, university faculty, scientists, CEOs and Supreme Court justices.

Media contact: Adam Meier, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 202-203-7026.

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