The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

20 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Members of the Foreign Service, some of them Fulbright alumni, play a crucial role in the continuing success of this singular U.S. exchange program. COVER STORY Fulbright Programat 70: The Foreign Service Connection BY J EROME SHERMAN AND JAMES LAWRENCE Jerome Sherman, a public diplomacy officer, is a student in the second-year FSI Arabic language program in Amman, Jordan. Pre- viously, he was a special assistant to the deputy assistant secretary for academic programs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and he has also served in Jerusalem and Ciudad Juarez. James A. Lawrence is a public affairs officer in the Office of Academic Exchange Programs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. He previously served in the Bureau of Consular Affairs and the State Department Operations Center. T he Fulbright Program, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, is recognized as the flagship U.S. government educa- tional exchange program and continues to attract record numbers of applicants. Approximately 8,000 individuals from the United States and more than 160 other countries participate in the program annually, returning home to join a global alumni network of more than 370,000. Among their ranks are 54 Nobel Prize recipients, 82 Pulitzer Prize win- ners and 33 current or former heads of state or government. Many thousands of others have had a major impact on their local institutions and communities and in expanding interna- tional connections. Over the years, the Fulbright Program has adapted and diversified its models, areas of emphasis and applicant recruit- ment to reflect a changing world and stakeholder interests. But at the same time, it has maintained its fundamental principles, such as a transparent, merit-based selection process. Once best known for its awards to U.S. artistic luminaries, the program now also makes about 30 percent of its awards in scientific fields. Today China, India, Mexico and Pakistan boast some of the largest Fulbright programs in theworld, with Pakistan having the largest.