GlobalPittsburgh Hosts Group of Visiting Fulbright Scholars to Showcase Regional Assets

GlobalPittsburgh recently was awarded a grant to host an Enrichment Program for Fulbright Scholars in Western Pennsylvania, the first phase of which took place March 24-27. The Fulbright Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The enrichment program was designed by GlobalPittsburgh to enhance the experience of the visiting scholars and connect them with the larger community. The Fulbright Scholars participating in the program were from Bulgaria, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Poland, Spain and Taiwan.

They are teaching or conducting research at the University of Pittsburgh’s Pittsburgh and Bradford campuses, at Carnegie Mellon and at Penn State’s University Park campus and at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Their fields of study included arts, history, engineering, anthropology, medical science, computer science and communications.

“This enrichment program in a non-anchor city is new for the Fulbright program; Pittsburgh is proud to have been chosen to host Visiting Scholars through this program,” said Roger Cranville, President of GlobalPittsburgh. “The Pittsburgh region benefits greatly from this kind of visit, which displays our strengths to the rest of the world, and connects this region to other countries in many positive ways.”

The visiting scholars are expected to complete the second phase of the program in May, Cranville said. Gail Shrott, Vice President of Program Services, and Tim Allen, Director of Program Services designed and implemented the programming for GlobalPittsburgh with the assistance of local Fulbright alumna Hannah Sholder. They are in process of confirming the itinerary for the Fulbright Scholar’s May programming.

During their visit the group met with local Fulbright alumni, visited the Cathedral of Learning for a tour of the nationality rooms in the morning, met with members of the GlobalPittsburgh Education Partnership at Penn State Greater Allegheny, had an interactive session with staff and students at Urban Youth Action, toured the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History, attended the Latin American and Caribbean Festival at the William Pitt Union building, visited Phipps Conservatory, and had dinner with members of the GlobalPittsburgh network.

LIST OF PARTICIPATING FULBRIGHT VISITING SCHOLARS

Bulgaria Mr. Oleg Nikolaev Gotchev
University of Pittsburgh Bradford, Arts

Italy Mr. Fabrizio Tonello
University of Pittsburgh, History

Latvia Mr. Anatolijs Borodinecs
Penn State, Engineering

Kyrgyzstan Mrs. Mukram Toktogulova
University of Pittsburgh, Anthropology

Poland Mr. Marek Antoni Postula
Penn State Hershey, Medical Sciences

Spain Mr. Oscar Saz Torralba
Carnegie Mellon University, Computer Science

Taiwan Ms. Chen Ling Hung
Penn State, Communications

Taiwan Mr. Ming Miin Yu
Penn State, Engineering

Also joining the group for certain activities were Dr. Ercan Karakoc, Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Chatham University, and Mr. Konstantin Redkin, a Fulbright Alumnus studying at the University of Pittsburgh’s Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.

GlobalPittsburgh welcomes hundreds of international visitors to the Pittsburgh region annually, creating benefits to the visitors and to the region, Cranville said. Other programs include the GlobalPittsburgh Education Partnership, to attract international students to the region, and GlobalPittsburgh CONNECT, which provides activities and programs for international students and globally minded individuals.

For more information, go to www.globalpittsburgh.org.