Record Number of Monterey Institute Students to Receive U.S. Fulbright Awards

Six students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies will receive U.S. Fulbright scholarship awards for the 2012-2013 academic year, the most in the Institute’s 57-year history.

This surpasses last year's record of five, which had MIIS students landing more U.S. Fulbrights on a per capita basis than every top-ten school in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, with a higher applicant success rate than all but one of these leading schools.

A seventh Fulbright applicant from the Monterey Institute is an alternate and may still be selected.

The six MIIS students receiving Fulbright awards this year are:

• Robin Chen – Proficient in three Chinese dialects and an expert in innovative language acquisition methodologies, Chen will promote language education and cross-cultural learning in Taiwan. ·
• Patrick Gaebler  – An engineer and linguist by training, Gaebler will help increase the number of English-speaking Brazilians in preparation for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 
• Tess Harris – An expert in agricultural water conservation in semi-arid locations such as the Australia and California, Harris will research best practices for water conservation on farms in Cyprus. 
• Jaymee Martin – Building on her French and Spanish language proficiency and expertise in art as an education tool, Martin will teach English in Andorra. 
• Jessica Matzen  – Drawing on her master's in Teaching Foreign Languages, Matzen will use cutting edge methodologies to promote language proficiency and cross-cultural communication in Belgium. 
• Elizabeth Romanoff  – Working with university partners in the Slovak Republic, Romanoff will research the role that women authors have played in catalyzing gender equality in that country. 

Administered by the U.S. Department of State since 1946, the U.S. Fulbright Program is the county's flagship international educational exchange program. A small number of awardees study, teach and conduct research in more than 155 countries each year.

Known for its selectivity and prestige, since its establishment in 1946 Fulbright has produced successful leaders in business, policy, science, and the arts, including 43 Fulbright alumni who have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.