Panthers lead impact through Fulbright program

FIU is a hub of international exchange through the U.S. Fulbright Program. 

In the last decade, the university has received designation as a top producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars five times. Fulbright awards are notoriously difficult to land, and yet over the years, FIU has received more than 350 awards. These awards represent faculty, students and alumni going abroad from FIU as well as incoming faculty and students from other countries joining the university for research or study.

The Fulbright Program is administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE).  The program awards thousands of merit-based fellowships and scholarships in the U.S. at more than 160 countries every year to accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals of all backgrounds and fields. Fulbrighters study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to complex global challenges.

This semester, FIU is hosting or sending abroad a total of 25 people through the Fulbright program. FIU also hosted the Fulbright Program’s annual conference. As part of the conference, more than 400 Fulbright scholars, leaders and international education experts from across the globe gathered at MMC Oct. 24-26. Among featured speakers were the president of the Beacon Council, president of the World Affairs Council of America, the Washington Director of Human Rights Watch and more.

“FIU is proud to serve as the university partner for this gathering,” said Birgitta “Gitta” Rausch-Montoto, director of FIU Global and a Fulbright Program campus liaison. “Global exchanges of students and faculty are integral to FIU’s commitment to international education—they foster the advancement of scientific and scholarly knowledge and enhance worldwide collaboration in ways that only in-person engagement can truly achieve.”

Impactful research

Since 1975, FIU has been actively engaged with the Fulbright Program, assisting faculty, staff and students in applying for awards and working with partner institutions to host international scholars and experts on campus. As a result, both faculty and students at FIU and across the globe have worked together to address areas such as coral reef conservation research; microgrids and renewable energy; agricultural science; diplomacy and peace studies; science and music education; and entrepreneurship and innovation, among many others.

For example, biomedical engineering alumnus Nelson Abarca ’21 recently began working at the Fundacion Cien research center in Madrid, Spain. He is helping a research team uncover ways to improve how dementia is diagnosed.

“If we can diagnose patients with frontotemporal dementia earlier, it can potentially help us find more individually tailored treatments in the future,” Abarca explains. “I’ve already started working in the lab. I’m learning so much. I’m fortunate that my lab is amazing and that there are so many great scientists here. The other day I shadowed a neuropsychologist evaluating a patient with dementia. It was a great experience.”

He says gaining an international perspective is crucial as he prepares for his goal: medical school.

“Being a Fulbright Scholar is going to set my medical school application apart,” he says. “It gives me a different perspective about research and healthcare that I didn’t have before.”

International exchange

Much like Abarca, many Fulbrighters cite their desire to learn about the world and to apply lessons they learn internationally at home. This is a key aspect of the Fulbright program — participants are meant to participate in an authentic exchange of knowledge, perspectives and wisdom, all for the benefit of society.

Agustina Rosenbluth Mulki is a graduate student at FIU who came from Argentina to study at the university through the Fulbright program. She decided she wanted to earn a graduate degree abroad to strengthen her already solid business skills. She holds various degrees related to industrial engineering and business from her home country. And this semester, she will earn her master’s in engineering management at FIU.

Rosenbluth Mulki has experience in supply chain management and has worked in logistics, inventory management and international trade (import and export). She says this degree is taking her skills to the next level.  

“I’m impressed with everything I’ve learned at FIU,” she says. “We have access to the latest textbooks and scholarship here. I’m gaining more experience in the industry. I’m taking back home many new ideas about engineering management and new knowledge about software that I didn’t know about before." 

"This degree from FIU is preparing me to be a leader," she adds, "and I think it’s going to open a lot of doors for me within my province [hometown] and within my country.”

She says that FIU has been the perfect place for her.

“Since day one, FIU has made me feel at home,” Rosenbluth Mulki says. “I’ve felt like I’m part of something bigger than me, I’m part of FIU.”

She will be walking across the commencement stage this semester.

Flourishing of the arts

For Jamie Ousley, music is an international language. Ousley is an associate professor of music and the coordinator of jazz performance at FIU. In 2023, he traveled to Costa Rica on a Fulbright Specialist award and spent several weeks at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNCR).

There, he helped develop a curriculum for a new master’s degree in jazz studies and worked with students who were eager to learn about jazz. The students knew very few jazz musicians to mentor them — and few who were American, where jazz is often regarded as originating. These students deeply appreciated Ousley’s mentorship.  

While in Costa Rica, Ousley also collaborated with a group of international artists to record an album that was nominated for an award at the 2024 Latin Grammys.

“Claude Bolling Goes Latin: Suite for Flute and Latin Music Ensemble” is a new arrangement of Claude Bolling’s most famous piece, infused with Latin Jazz. It was produced by the professor who hosted Ousley at UNCR and propelled the group of musicians to experience a new level of recognition.

“Being nominated for a Latin Grammy was a new experience for me,” Ousley says. “That was very exciting. The ceremony was in Miami for the first time after many years. It was great. At the Latin Grammys, you see the business side of the music industry. It’s the red carpet. I enjoyed it a lot. And of course, the album itself is very good music.”

And even though earning both the Latin Grammy nomination and the Fulbright award itself are outstanding career achievements, Ousley says the most important thing he helped produce during that trip was “students in the program at Costa Rica.”

“They graduated and are now the jazz educators around Central America,” he says. “Many are from Panama and Costa Rica, and they are spreading jazz education.”

For Ousley, it all started with an appreciation for intercultural exchange.

“Cultural diplomacy is so important,” he says. “Music is a way to do it. It’s a universal language. It’s important to have human relationships. It’s so easy to take the humanity out of the equation when thinking about different, far-off places. The Fulbright program is a great way to bring humans from different parts of the world together.”