The Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology is closing/merging with the Fulbright Association in Washington. As an independent alumni group, we worked with alumni groups all around the world, and I hope that its innovative programming and mission will continue under the umbrella of the US association.
I have found the Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology (FAST) to be an outstanding and valuable nonprofit organization. I find it particularly valuable in building national and international professional networks. I am a 3-time Fulbright Awardee having had awards in two different countries and parts of the world. Participation in the last four FAST meetings has allowed me to start, with Professor Baronies from Ecuador, the International Undergraduate Research Symposium (IURS) which is an activity of FAST. In addition participation in FAST has allowed me to expand the number of countries participating in IURS. The IURS brings undergraduates and their advisors together from around the world to share their research findings (both students and advisors make presentations) and interest. In addition to the presentations the symposium has two workshops, such as on preparing manuscripts for publication. Also students visit local science based industries so that they may see science in action. Thus, through the IURS FAST is developing the next generation of international researchers and potential Fulbrigh Scholars.
I was a student grantee in the late 1980s and changed jobs several times in the 1990s. Each time I thought, "There must be Fulbrighters who would want to hire someone like me - a fellow Fulbrighter with international experience and a desire to improve the world." But it was hard to find them and hard to reach them. When advances in the internet made it possible for alumni to easily find and interact on a global scale, I volunteered to work on the creation of the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology. We had a small group of alumni volunteers who had a similar vision, and we slowly built the organization. Today, FAST is leveraging the knowledge, abilities and connections of the Global Fulbright Alumni Community, with programs worldwide, and as the executive director I have the pleasure of interacting with thousands of alumni - and using the network to help many meet their personal and professional goals.
Fulbright Academy is an amazing nonprofit doing genuine national and international SERVICE. As a professional bioethicist and 3-time former Fulbright awardee, who also serves on the Executive Board of my local Northern CA. Fulbright Alumni Association (5 years), I can attest that Fulbright Academy does yet more impressive REAL SERVICE in the USA and around the globe than other Fulbright alumni organizations more local and regional in their outreach. The expanded outreach of Fulbright Academy alone is amazing. I constantly marvel at what Executive Director Eric Howard & his team of supporters and volunteers are able to achieve with their tireless work and genuine creative and cutting edge concrete ideas implemented successfully for real service. Any donor funds are put to concrete and efficient and EFFECTIVE use. That's all Fulbright Academy needs to do yet more on very little. It is an extremely worthy charity and as a professional ethicist I give it my highest recommendation.
This is an unusual organization devoted to technical analysis and problem-solving, drawing on the thousands of current and former Fulbright scholars and their hosts. This is a large, sophisticated, and significant talent pool that can bring experience and global perspective to issues both small (repairing a telescope in Morocco) and huge (global health). The value added is that FAST brings "Fulbrighters" together on basis of technical expertise and interests rather than country program, which had been the only basis for alumni groups previously.
Hello, In April 2010 the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at Fairleigh Dickinson U. partnered with FAST to organize a Forum on Human Values and Sustainability. Along with Eric Howard, Ex. Director of FAST, I headed up the project team that organized and ran the Forum. Partnering with FAST enabled us to engage a greater array of advisors, speakers and participants to the one-day Forum. FAST, and Eric Howard in particular, were wonderful partners who were engaged in every aspect of the Forum. We had bi-weekly meetings over the six month planning period with about half of the 7 person project team calling in on Skype. The Forum was a great success--an in-depth dialogue across business, academia, government, and non-profits (people and issues). The Forum also prompted the project team to publish an article ("Human Values and Sustainability: Can Green Swim Upstream" in the journal, People and Strategy) and present an All-Academy Workshop on human values at the Academy of Management annual conference in Montreal in August. All of these activities were self funded. The point is that it was a highly collaborative and productive partnership. FAST not only does good works worldwide but its members live their commitments and values. In March of 2010 my wife, Rose, and I attended the FAST conference on Sustainability in San Francisco. It was an international gathering of diverse and caring participants. FAST is building a community that will continue to expand in service of worldwide needs. Dr. Daniel Twomey Professor of Management Director for International Partnerships Institute for Sustainable Enterprise Fairleigh Dickinson University
The Academy in unique in providing ways for former Fulbright scholars to communicate with their colleagues, seek expertise, look for human & financial resources and develop further the areas which originally earned them their Fulbright status, without any connection to or obligation to the U.S. Government or their own government.
FAST is a great organization that facilitates collaboration among current and former Fulbright scholars who are interested in bettering the world through their gifts and skills. The group has done remarkable work connecting people who otherwise would not have met.
I was impressed not only by the number of scholars who comprise this organization but also by their sense of contribution to and caring for the larger community. Here is a repository of minds belonging to people who have deonstrated their intellectual abilities as well as their dedication to global concerns. My experiences with them confirmed this. Although they consist of a discrete body of individuals who have earned Fulbright scholarships, the organization is open to, and actively pursues, partnerships with the general public and other like-minded organizations.
FAST provides networking and collaborative learning opportunities among Fulbright scholars from diverse fields. Their conference in San Francisco 2010 was informative and valuable.
FAST is a unique organization because of the way in which it fosters international colloboration. There conferences are especially interesting because of the variety of presentations and the outreach they do to the conference host city.