To learn more about efforts to get more HBCU students involved in study-abroad programs, go to myajc.com/news/lifestyles/colleges-others-try-to-interest-more-hbcu-students/npFp9.
Some of the brightest minds in education, human rights, business and politics will gather in Atlanta this week for the 38th annual Fulbright Association conference.
Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a human rights and education advocate born in India, will be the keynote speaker during the conference's opening dinner at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center.
Satyarthi is the founder of the nonprofit Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save Childhood Movement, which has rescued more than 84,000 Indian children from bonded labor and human trafficking.
The conference, with the theme of “Creating Pathways to Peace in Global Health and Education,” runs through Saturday.
Other speakers and attendees include former U.N. Ambassador Andew Young; Dr. Louis Sullivan, former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services; Laura Turner Seydel, environmental advocate; Dr. David Satcher, 16th U.S. surgeon general; and pro basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo, an expert on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This is the first time the conference has been held outside Washington in the United States.
“This puts Atlanta on the map, because Fulbright scholars are coming from all over,” said Jerome Cooper, chairman of the board and a principal with Cooper Carry, an Atlanta-based architectural, planning and sustainability consulting firm. He was a 1956 Fulbright scholar in Rome.
Kim D. Eger, co-chairman of the conference and a member of the national board of the Fulbright Association, said the city was a natural site.
“Kailash Satyarthi was recognized for his efforts in human rights and ending trafficking, and Atlanta is, for the nation, a center of human and civil rights, so that ties in with all Atlanta has to offer,” Eger said.
In addition, said Eger, president and CEO of Eco Smart Shutters, the city has one of the largest consortiums of historically black colleges and universities, is a hub for international business and exchange, and is a health center.
The prestigious Fulbright scholar program is named after the late Sen. J. William Fulbright, the long-standing chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The scholarship program sponsors U.S. and foreign participants for exchanges in areas such as sciences, business, education, arts and public service.
Atlanta is home to a number of Fulbright scholars, including John H. Eaves, chairman of the Fulton County Commission, who spent a month in Germany in 2003 and two months in Finland in 2004 as part of the program.
He said the exposure to how other countries address education and other services “provided a paradigm shift for me on how government can make society better by addressing social needs and disparities.”
Eger said several new initiatives will be discussed at the conference, including ways to increase awareness about the program in HBCUs and among African-Americans.
He said he’s been meeting with African-American leaders “about a future we want to create together that will indeed have a much larger applicant pool from the HBCU community and, thus, in the future, a greater number of African-Americans will become Fulbright scholars. We believe there could be a Fulbright mentorship legacy project as one outcome.”
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