SUNY Geneseo named a Combined Top Fulbright Producer
Photo courtesy of Benjamin D Esham/Wikimedia Commons
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, according to Fulbright Online, creates valuable academic and professional opportunities for students in higher education and for professional scholars. Since 1946, the program has been supporting scholars and students by “increas[ing] mutual understanding and support[ing] friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” as per the program’s official website. SUNY Geneseo’s news center has detailed that the college “has once again been named a Top Producer of both Fulbright US student and Fulbright US Scholar awards.” This is Geneseo’s eighth time receiving this honor.
An entry on SUNY Geneseo’s official website details that the program “is one of the most prestigious and competitive fellowship programs in the world,” spanning over 140 countries, “faciltat[ing] cultural exchange through interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field and home.” Also stated is the fact that the Fulbright U.S. Scholar program, for “faculty, administrators, researchers, and many others… is one of the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange programs in the world.” Recipients of U.S. Fulbright awards are “offer[ed] fellowships… to study, conduct research, and/or teach English abroad,” according to the United States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Four SUNY Geneseo students received the Fulbright U.S. Student award for the 2025-26 year. These students’ awards have contributed to Geneseo’s “historical total [of] 58 awards offered to Geneseo students and alums,” according to Geneseo’s online news center. Exceptional scholars from the college also received U.S. Fulbright Scholar awards, giving SUNY Geneseo the distinction of Combined Top Fulbright producer, as its community members were honored with both student and scholar awards. Scholars from Geneseo receiving the honor include, as detailed by SUNY Geneseo, “Intekhab Alam, distinguished teaching professor of marketing in the School of Business (Oman), and Thomas Osburn, associate professor of physics (Ireland).”
With these scholar and student awards, “Geneseo remains the only dedicated SUNY institution to be named to both lists in the same year,” Geneseo’s news center reported. Its combined numbers of Fulbright Student and Scholar awards also earned the college a place on Fulbright’s official website, being listed among seven intuitions which had the honor of being named a Top Producer in both students and scholars.
Mary C. Toale, the college’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, praised Geneseo for being committed to academic excellence, saying “Geneseo’s eighth recognition as one of the nation’s Top Producers of Fulbright Student awards reflects the exceptional students the College attracts, the outstanding faculty who mentor them, and the power of a truly transformational liberal arts education,” in a quote from Geneseo’s news center article.
SUNY Geneseo’s newly appointed president, Melinda Treadwell, was also quoted in the article, stating, “The College once again being named as a Top Producer of Fulbright Scholars is a wonderful testament to the research prowess and caliber of our truly dedicated and renowned faculty, whose work takes them around the county and across the world,” she commented.
Geneseo’s Education for a Connected World curriculum, along with its commitment to being a public honors college, allows students to receive a “distinctive learning experience… engaging with complex problems through interdisciplinary inquiry, with particular attention to diversity, pluralism, and power; World Cultures and Values; contemporary global challenges; and sustainability,” as detailed on the college’s official website. The honor of being named a Combined Top Fulbright producer deepens the meaning of Geneseo’s honors college experience.