Fulbright RIEA Program

Tue Dec 19 01:47:03 UTC 2006

Dear SEELANGERS,

I have a bit of an unusual and last minute request from Irkutsk State Linguistic University.

Natalia Sverdlova, who works with incoming international students there, has recently been contacted by the Embassy (academic exchanges) suggesting that they submit an application for the Fulbright Russian International Education Administrators (RIEA) program (http://www.fulbright.ru/index.shtml?/news/20061111). Technically the deadline has passed, but they are giving them more time. I suspect perhaps they have not had enough applicants for this yet and one reason may be that potential applicants do not have the network really to tap into the US university international offices, which would be necessary in this case. Stronger ties between Russian and US universities have traditionally been through Russian and other departments.

Natalia is very interested in this opportunity and is eager to not only learn about how our US universities work with incoming international students (I for one would love for all Russian international departments to have this experience!!!) but to also promote her region, university and studies unique to the area.

While Natalia could certainly learn about international offices at most US universities, I think she would be of particular benefit to a school with a Russian department, one contemplating an exchange with Russia or simply sending students abroad to a destination other than Moscow or St. Petersburg, or simply having a guest speaker in Russian classes.

The question to all of you SEELANGers is the following: Do you think your international office would be interested in hosting Natalia Sverdlova for a month (Fulbright covers all expenses)? If so, could you contact Natalia directly at nsverdlova at yandex.ru as soon as possible. As I understand, she will need a "letter of invitation" from a host school as part of her application.

I am hoping that this grant covers sending the participants to the NAFSA convention as well, as it takes place right after their program ends. I will be suggesting that to them just in case as it seems a rather obvious "must include" for anyone in international education who normally would probably not have the budget to attend one of the more useful conferences.

Many thanks in advance for anyone who can help Natalia out with this last minute question.

Renee

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