Fulbright Creates Opportunities
Gary Hunter (MKT) is looking forward to teaching German students about American retail businesses, and to learning more about retail businesses in Europe. He will be a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Paderborn University in Paderborn, Germany in fall 2007.
Hunter will teach about retail systems as part of a lecturing and research grant through the Fulbright Program. His teaching will focus on strategy, financial analysis and issues of consumer behavior in a retail environment. In addition to teaching the retail course, Hunter will conduct research on German retail markets and consumer empowerment.
The Fulbright Scholar visit to Paderborn will be the culmination of a very busy year for Hunter. In mid May, he will lead a group of students from Illinois State’s College of Business on the first part of their summer study abroad trip to England and Belgium. During June, he will teach a summer course on retail systems at Paderborn University. That teaching assignment, separate from the Fulbright Program, is a result of an invitation he received from the marketing faculty at Paderborn. Hunter visited that institution in May 2006 as part of a faculty exchange and began an academic collaboration with the department’s faculty.
“Teaching the summer course in retail systems at Paderborn will be an excellent warm-up for the Fulbright visit in the fall,” said Hunter. “It will allow me to tailor the course content to fit into a German context. The Fulbright Scholar visit will give me an expanded opportunity to teach about American retail business practices, while learning a great deal about retail markets in Germany. That type of cross-cultural business study will help to enrich my teaching when I return to Illinois State in the spring of 2008.”
Hunter is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals traveling abroad through the Fulbright Scholar Program. The Fulbright Program is America’s flagship international education exchange program and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, with the purpose of building mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world. The program operates in more than 150 countries.
The Fulbright commission just released the applications for next year. They are due August 1. According to Hunter, the application process involves developing a project statement which includes both research and teaching components. While the project statement must answer a series of specific questions, the underlying question is “How your visit will benefit the host institution, your institution, and you?” Specifically, Hunter had to provide:
- an evaluation of my teaching (his was written by Tim Longfellow)
- two professional references
- an evaluation of his proficiency at speaking, understanding, and writing German (proficiency is not required for the award)
- the letter of invitation from Dr. Andreas Eggert and the Universität Paderborn.
Hunter received notice that he passed the first stage of the process in January and got final confirmation in March. “After receiving the award a number of people in the marketing department volunteered to cover some of my classes so that I would be available to participate in the program. Many colleagues contributed to the success of my application and to my ability to accept the award,” he explained.
Hunter hopes students and the College will directly benefit from his Fulbright experiences. “My exposure to other pedagogical techniques, the European Union and their parliamentary system of governance, and an array of new overseas experiences will foster class discussion,” said Hunter. “I also believe I will have a greater understanding of some of the issues facing the foreign exchange students who travel here for their education.”
Two main benefits to the College include expanding a network of contacts for research projects and greater exposure to German industries. Hunter looks forward to sharing these things with colleagues upon his return.
For more information about the Fulbright Program visit http://exchanges.state.gov
