Georgetown University produced the second highest number of United States Fulbright Student Program awardees among institutions of higher education, with 26 students and graduates chosen within the past year to participate in the program for the 2021-22 cycle.

The Fulbright Program provides monetary grants for individual research projects in a host country outside the U.S., where recipients have the opportunity to experience and learn from another culture. Awardees from the 2021-22 class will conduct research in 17 countries across five different continents. 

The international academic exchange program, which started in 1946, facilitates stronger cultural relationships between U.S. scholars and people of the host countries by providing experiential learning opportunities. 

Since the Fulbright Program’s beginning, almost 500 Georgetown students and graduates have participated. For 2019-20 and 2020-21, Georgetown was the highest producer of U.S. Fulbright student awardees among nearly 600 peer institutions. 

Peter DiGiovanni (COL ’21), a 2021 Fulbright scholar, started his project in Geneva, Switzerland, where he works at the Geneva University Hospitals with a focus on patient recovery following total hip arthroplasty.

“With this experience I wanted to not just contribute to something in the research community at large, but also continue on my own personal and professional career and aspirations,” DiGiovanni said in an interview with The Hoya. 

Georgetown’s Center for Research and Fellowships works with applicants during the Fulbright Program application process. The center focuses on teaching applicants skills such as personal essay writing, designing a well-detailed research plan and making connections between intellectual passions and the real world.

Georgetown sees many Fulbright Program applicants, and ultimately winners, because the application process prepares students for careers and the program alike, according to Lauren Tuckley, director of the Center for Research and Fellowships.  

“Each applicant walks away with skills that they can adapt when applying for other merit-based opportunities, like graduate school, research funding, and even learning how to write a persuasive cover letter,” Tuckley wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I think this model — and our ability to keep the application process fun (!) — allows us to deepen our applicant pool by minimizing the barriers that often prohibit students from applying!”

DiGiovanni said that studying abroad at Georgetown’s Villa Le Balze outside of Florence, Italy, and conducting research at Georgetown’s Italian Research Institute as an undergraduate student prepared him for his time abroad. 

Georgetown’s opportunities for global immersion and studying abroad make its applicants to the Fulbright Program successful, according to DiGiovanni.  

“I think one of Georgetown’s biggest strengths is being an international presence. Part of doing that is having an amazing Fulbright office,” DiGiovanni said. “I cannot give enough credit to that whole team. What they’re doing and how they’re preparing students for this opportunity is really fantastic.”

Fulbright applicants and winners adopt strategies that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives, whether that be for future careers, research or projects, according to Tuckley. 

“Fulbright changes lives in profound ways,” Tuckley wrote. “I’ve seen this transformation happen enough times to know that it doesn’t come from any particular project’s outcome but from what a young person learns from pursuing their passion through the exchange of cultures.”