To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright program, Fulbright alumni of Bangladesh and the U.S. Embassy organized a two-day virtual conference entitled, “Celebrating 75 Years of Fulbright: U.S.-Bangladesh Together Towards Tomorrow,” engaging all U.S. government exchange program alumni.
Dhaka, October 28, 2021 — U.S. Ambassador Earl Miller and Deputy Chief of Mission Helen LaFave joined hundreds of U.S. government-funded exchange program alumni to celebrate the Fulbright program’s 75th anniversary through a two-day virtual conference. Honorable Vice Chancellor of the University of Dhaka, Professor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman (Fulbright Scholar, 2002), joined the opening ceremony as the chief guest on October 27, while macroeconomist and former ambassador, Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya (Fulbright Scholar, 2004), delivered the Fulbright Day keynote address on October 28.
“Through the Fulbright program, you cultivated long lasting friendships with students, scholars, and community leaders in the United States and worldwide and you returned to Bangladesh and share your knowledge and ideas.” Ambassador Miller told Bangladeshi Fulbright alumni.
During the closing session, Ms. LaFave said, “International education exchanges benefit both our nations and peoples, boosting intellectual and cross-cultural capital. They also become catalysts for professional networks and help prepare students to enter the global job market to address the world’s toughest challenges.”
Established in 1946 by Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright program is the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange program that strengthens and expands people-to-people ties and educational linkages between the United States and countries around the world. The Bangladeshi Fulbright alumni community sought to celebrate this milestone by convening all U.S. government exchange alumni through a virtual conference with the theme, “Impact: 75 Years of Global Actions, Opportunities, and Connections.” More than 650 Bangladeshis have traveled to the United States under Fulbright exchange programs and over 250 Americans have conducted research and/or taught in Bangladesh. Notable alumni include the renowned 20th century structural engineer and architect, Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan, who received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1952.
The two-day virtual conference engaged over 4,000 Bangladeshi U.S. government-funded exchange program alumni through 16 engaging sessions on topics such as climate change, agriculture, gender equality, higher education, science and technology, and an historical overview of U.S.-Bangladesh diplomatic relations.
To learn more about the 75th Anniversary of the Fulbright program, visit: https://fulbright75.org/.
To learn more about Bangladesh’s Fulbright Day, visit: https://fulbright75.org/event/fulbright-day-bangladesh/.
For more information about the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, visit: https://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/about/foreign-student-program.
For more information about the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program, visit: https://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/about/flta-program.
For information about other U.S. government-funded exchange program opportunities for students, visit: https://bd.usembassy.gov/education-culture/student-exchange-programs/.
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