Harriet Fulbright Inaugral Lecturer International House UC Berkeley

What a delightful evening!  It is wonderful to see Harriet Fulbright again; she is now in her 80s and still regal and does not miss a tack in her questions and answers, which refrain was that she wished that many more people could be fulbrighters and in that way, expand its vision and impact even more.  She emphasized how much of a good force for peace and understanding it remains, as people, after being on a fulbright think differently when they return to their professions.  Her husband died in 1995; that must have been about the same year as we had the reception for the North American campaign for the business SAID school at Oxford at the UN, where she and her husband were honored, and which Henry Kissinger and his wife attended. It was quite the occasion.  Mr. Fulbright had been a Rhoades Scholar and that inspired him when he was in public office to create an international exchange that would change the way people think.   The Chair of the Graduate department hosted her and did very well; the vice provost provided some good evidence of UC Berkeley's participation in globalism and international education. The donors from HK gave a nice speech, about their participation.  I talked with her afterwards, and she had just spent time with their daughters in Shanghai for two weeks.  Her mother has three properties there, but she rents them out. It was a nice reception with wines and very decent canapes: salmon, rare beef, and so on...there were over 60 alumni from the Fulbright program in the audience and in the reception.   A lunch was held for her today with fulbrights at Berkeley, and it appeared she was being taken to dinner.  She told me to just e-mail her to stay in touch.  She wore a Uzbek ikat, black and white, and gave an example of going to visit a middle school in Tashkent, when she visited there. She taught English and Creative Writing in both Russia and Seuol, Korea.  Her father sent her at an early age to Bogota, Colombia, which opened her eyes! She has since lived in London and in Germany.  The editor in chief of the Ihouse publication, a vivacious younger woman, introduced herself, Shanti Corrigan, and extended an invitation and a magazine about events at IH. Very gratifying  The Fulbright was an exceptional opportunity.  My fulbright was split between Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, and introduced me to Islamic culture and the past of Tamerlane and more. . 

The Berkeley campus includes 77 faculty members who were Fulbright Scholars  and UCB has the honor of hosting more fulbrighters than any institution.  Many reside in International House.  The Fulbright operates in 155 countries and places 1900 scholars annually in a global exchange program.   According to I H, see "Fulbright and the importance of International Education" at www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures .