EMILY REID/Arizona Daily Wildcat Fulbright Scholar Andrew Gardner talks about his research plans. Gardner is one of 15 Fulbright scholars from the UA.

A record number of UA students and alumni will be completing research overseas this year as Fulbright scholars.

This year, UA has more Fulbright scholars than ever before with 15, placing the UA within the top 10 public universities and the top 15 of all universities in the country in terms of the most Fulbright scholars.

Nearly half of the 36 applicants who applied to the Fulbright Program at the UA last fall were accepted, making up not only the largest number of Fulbright scholars in university history, but the highest percentage ever accepted, said Dr. Karna Walter, assistant director of international studies and internships.

Nationally, about one-fifth of students who apply receive a Fulbright grant.

The Fulbright program, which awards grants to fully fund a year of research in almost any country, is open to graduating seniors and graduate students.

Eleven of the students who received a grant this year are graduate students

Walter said many graduate students apply to the Fulbright program because it is a good opportunity to pursue dissertation research.

Andrew Gardner, an anthropology graduate student, plans to use his fellowship in Bahrain, an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, to do just that. He will leave in late November to live among and study the population of Indian foreign laborers that live and work in the Persian Gulf Region.

Gardner, who spent much of his summer in the United Arab Emirates, is optimistic about his upcoming trip to nearby Bahrain.

He said that the UAE is similar to Bahrain because they are both fairly Westernized and have many of the same socio-political issues.

"I found that, despite some of the difficulties of being non-Muslim in an mostly Muslim culture, that the people are welcoming," he said. "They're interested in Americans, and I'm interested in them."

Hannah McLean graduated from UA last semester, and while she isn't using her grant to work on a dissertation, she thought it would be a good way to spend her time between college and graduate school.

McLean has been in the Netherlands since mid-August and will spend the next seven months digging through legal archives for records on euthanasia to study physician-assisted suicide.

Warner said that other Fulbright recipients are working on projects that involve sifting through Belgian archives for medieval church records and utilizing satellite imagery to help African farmers decide when to plant their crops.

The other Fulbright recipients were: Regina Benton, Jeanine Brown, Victoria Clisham, Anne Heintz, Katherine Holmsen, Bradley Koch, Rachel Kram, Colleen MacDonald, Brian Nelson, Leslie Schwindt-Bayer, Rebecca Sponseller, Lori Strazadas and Kiki Thorpe.

To receive a grant, the applicants had to earn the endorsement of a panel of UA faculty members, who forwarded applications to New York for review by the agency that administers the program. The agency selected applications to send to the host countries, who made the final decisions.

Walter said a student hoping to win a Fulbright fellowship should know something about the country to which he applies, should be capable of promoting international exchange and developing international contacts, and his work should benefit both the host and home country.

Gardner's advice to interested students: Start the application early, ask for feedback from as many people as possible and don't give up, because it's a great opportunity.

"The most rewarding aspect of the Fulbright in general is that it enables students to go anywhere and to study anything," McLean said. "Whether you choose the research for the country or the country for the research, the Fulbright leaves so many possibilities open. You can essentially design the year of your dreams, and it will be attainable with this fellowship."

For more information about the Fulbright program, contact Karna Walter at karna@u.arizona.edu or at 621-6546.