Office of Science & Technology - An Interview with Lonnie Johnson, Executive Director of the Austrian-American Educational, or Fulbright, Commission
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An Interview with Lonnie Johnson, Executive Director of the Austrian-American Educational, or Fulbright, Commission Print E-mail
bridges vol. 26, July 2010 / People in the Spotlight


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The purpose of the Fulbright Program is to promote "mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the peoples of other countries." Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by Senator J. William Fulbright from Arkansas, the Fulbright Program currently operates in 140 countries, including 51 countries with binational Fulbright commissions such as the Austrian-American Educational Commission . Since its inception, over 250,000 students, teachers, academics, and professionals have participated in the Fulbright Program, including 5,000 citizens of Austria and the US who are alumni of the Austrian-American program.

Funded primarily by direct contributions from the governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Austria, the Fulbright Program provides grants for US citizens who are recent graduates and graduate students, or scholars and professionals, to study, teach, or pursue research in Austria, and for Austrian citizens to engage in similar activities in the US.

In an interview with Austrian Information, Dr. Lonnie Johnson, executive director of the Austrian Fulbright Commission, spoke about current developments in the field of Austrian-American student exchange.


Austrian Information: During early years of the Fulbright program, life in post-war Austria was fraught with economic hardship and political uncertainty compared to Austria today - now a member of the European Union and a country with social stability and strong economic growth. Based on very different periods in history, have the expectations of American students wishing to study in Austria over the past 60 years changed in any way? And vice versa, for Austrian students wishing to study in America?

Lonnie Johnson: The first generation of Austrian Fulbright grantees grew up during the Third Reich, and they were leaving a recently liberated, war-torn, economically depressed, and occupied country to spend a year in the peaceful and prosperous United States.  In countries with totalitarian pasts - like Germany and Austria - part of the idea was to show young people how democracies with functioning market economies work. Conversely, the American grantees were leaving the comforts of post-World War II America to study or teach in an occupied country, which was quite an adventure.  I once asked Willy Schlag, the founding executive secretary of the Fulbright Commission in Vienna, about the biggest problems American students had in the 1950s in Austria and he said: "No refrigerators; no orange juice." Today, American grantees are impressed by the high quality of life in Austria.

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