Although the impact of the pandemic is still being felt across the globe, 2021 commenced with a ray of hope beautifully and eloquently captured in verse by the young U.S. inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman, in The Hill We Climb: “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”

Another busy academic year is almost over, and we want to share news from Fulbright Greece. Fulbright  has remained resilient and has moved forward despite the adverse circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic. This would not have been possible without the efforts of our staff, our Fulbright Board, and the loyal support and commitment of our donors and friends.

Educational exchanges in the time of the pandemic have been challenging for both Greek and U.S. Fulbright grantees. While some grants will commence in the upcoming months, a number of scholars were able to complete theirs, despite the global restrictions. We are pleased to share brief reports from the field, from Nebraska to Woods Hole to Ancient Corinth.

The scholarship cycle for the new academic year 2021–2022 was successfully completed, and Greek and U.S. scholarship recipients will be announced later in the summer.

In 2021, we celebrate the global Fulbright Program's 75-year history of positive impact on the lives of individuals as well as on global communities. Fulbright is powered by its alumni. There are more than 400,000 Fulbrighters from over 160 countries. Of these alumni, more than 6,000 are part of the Greek–American educational and cultural exchange program. We are proud to highlight some of their stories.

The team of the Fulbright Greece EducationUSA Advising Center is pleased to present a new tool to assist students with their advising needs about studies in the U.S. Four short, animated videos with Greek subtitles provide answers to frequently asked questions.  Start with Your 5 Steps to Study in the U.S. where the character Athena guides students through the whole process.

The Fulbright Greece Virtual Exchanges initiative, created to foster connections and transcend distances during Covid-era social distancing, has become a useful and popular forum—one that may be incorporated permanently to further enhance our programs.

Through the webinar Cultural Exchanges and Creative Communities, which reviewed the U.S. artist residency landscape, we discussed insights on how to prepare a successful portfolio and explored the theme of the 2022 Santa Fe Institute Residency, “Revolution”.

In another virtual event, Fulbright Greece, in collaboration with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, celebrated Black History Month with an inspiring lecture by Michelle M. Wright, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet Professor of English, Emory University, entitled Blackness in Europe.

This year, we commemorate the 200-year-old friendship between the United States and Greece—a partnership of shared values that began when Americans joined Greece’s fight for independence. American Philhellenes, drawn by the cry for freedom and democracy, are the subject of various new scholarly researches, which reexamine Philhellenism through different prisms. Fascinating stories emerge as precursors, and possibly the origins, of educational and cultural exchanges.

The School of English at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki organized an international symposium entitled The Greek War of Independence and the United States: Narratives of Myth and Reality, where Greek and American scholars were brought together to share their views and interpretations on a rather under-researched topic: the international dimension of the Greek Revolution and its impact on the newly-born American republic.

We hope you take a moment to read Fulbright Greece E-News.

Artemis A. Zenetou

Executive Director
Fulbright Greece

_{Photo Credit: Madeline Collins, Delphi, Greece (open view), silver gelatin print, from the Art Supports Education-Fulbright Alumni Art Series}