Idaho State University Fulbright Forum set April 1 at Rendezvous Suites

A Fulbright Forum will be held April 1 at Idaho State University in the Rendezvous Suites with a student session from 9 to 11 a.m. and a faculty session from 3 to 5 p.m.

The event is being co-organized Josephine A. Garibaldi, associate professor of theatre and dance, and Sharon Sieber, professor of Spanish and ISU Fulbright program advisor, both of whom have served Fulbrights. The host and facilitator of the event is Maria Fletcher, director, International Programs Office.

Special guest Mushtaq Memon, Fulbright Ambassador, will speak at each session.

The speakers for the student information session and the faculty session include Fletcher, Sieber, and a panel of ISU Fulbright scholars. The panelists, all ISU faculty who have served in the Fulbright program, are Rajendra Bajracharya, professor, geomatics technology; Cynthia Blanton, associate professor, dietetics; Philip Cole, professor, physics; Garibaldi; Alan Johnson, professor, English. The panel will be facilitated by Sieber.

The panelists will address the questions of how the Fulbright award has changed their research and their teaching, as well as their international collaboration with scholars from abroad. They will also address questions from the audience on how to make academic contacts abroad and tips on how to make a Fulbright application competitive. The Fulbright award helps to disseminate the excellence of ISU faculties’ teaching and research abroad, and allows scholars to integrate what they have learned abroad into their ISU curriculum.

This event will actively recruit and support ISU faculty and students who are interested in applying for a Fulbright grant. The ISU Fulbright Forum supports faculty and student scholars in pursuit of academic excellence through exchanging ideas and social interaction, always aspiring to the Fulbright vision of increasing mutual understanding among the peoples of the world. The importance of Fulbright grants for ISU faculty and students is integral to internationalizing ISU’s campus and also in representing ISU’s accomplishments abroad.

Memon is the founding president of the Eastern Washington/North Idaho chapter of the Fulbright Association. He is a clinician scientist specializing in theriogenology (veterinary reproduction), and he is a diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists, a group of about 400 veterinary reproduction specialists worldwide

Memon has served as a visiting professor, consultant or volunteer in more than 20 countries. He is one of the founding faculty members starting the Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University. Before joining WSU, he taught at veterinary colleges of Oklahoma State, Louisiana State and Tufts University in Massachusetts. Memon was Fulbright Scholar in Oman, and based upon his dedication to global causes, was selected to serve as a Fulbright Ambassador.

Recently, he was elected to serve on the Board of Directors, Fulbright Association, representing more than 300,000 Fulbright alumni worldwide. Memon is author of more than 120 publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. He is co-editor of the recently published book titled “Food as Medicine.”

The event is free and open to the public. Tapas will be served. The Fulbright Forum is being sponsored, in part, by the International Programs Office, College of Arts and Letters Cultural Events Committee and the Department of Global Studies and Languages.

For more information about Fulbright awards and the activity of the ISU community nationally and internationally, visit the website www.isu.edu/ipo/fulbright, that is sponsored by the International Programs Office.