Seventeen Bowdoin students were offered Fulbright fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year, placing Bowdoin among the top five baccalaureate institutions.
Bowdoin tied for second with Amherst, Pomona, and Williams colleges, while Pitzer College led the list with eighteen fellows.
The Bowdoin students who accepted the grant are currently teaching English, doing reserach, or pursuing graduate study in the Czech Republic, Poland, Taiwan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Spain, France, Denmark, South Korea, and Morocco.
The goal of the Fulbright Program, established in 1946 and funded by the US government, is to foster mutual understanding between the United States and countries around the world via “people-to-people diplomacy,” according to the US State Department, which administers the program.
Why are so many Bowdoin students awarded Fulbrights?
Since 2017, between fifteen and twenty-four Bowdoin seniors and recent alumni have received the highly competitive Fulbright fellowship each year. Bowdoin staff cite several reasons for this: an alignment in missions, students' grounding in the liberal arts, the College's close-knit campus, robust institutional support, and an inspiring network of Fulbright alumni.
“There is so much about the Bowdoin experience that sets students up for success with the Fulbright program.
In addition to the liberal arts curriculum—including a distribution requirement in international perspectives and outstanding offerings in area studies and languages—Bowdoin students have countless opportunities in and outside the classroom to build a record that helps them to stand out. For example, students can spend a summer doing research, serve as a learning assistant or peer advisor, undertake an independent study, develop transferable skills through a CXD-funded internship, be on a team, lead a campus club, participate in an organization like Multilingual Mainers, or contribute to one of the many programs offered by the McKeen Center for the Common Good.
When Fulbright reviewers see these sorts of records, they know that Bowdoin students already have experience successfully interacting with people from different backgrounds, rising to challenges, and leading initiatives within the context of serving others.”
—Cindy Stocks is the director of the Office of Student Fellowships and Research, which supports seniors and recent graduates throughout the rigorous Fulbright application process.
Mission compatibility: The Fulbright mission in many ways aligns with Bowdoin's values and liberal arts focus. Julia Littlefield ’11, the lead advisor for the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program, said applicants are expected to engage meaningfully with their local communities as they fulfill their grant responsibilities.
In their applications, “students reflect on how they’ve served the common good here at Bowdoin and project it out into their future host community in ways that feel feasible and tangible,” she said. Many propose community projects such as joining or coaching sports teams, contributing to local arts, or volunteering with nonprofits.
Liberal arts background: Bowdoin's interdisciplinary education both strengthens applications and fuels interest, Littlefield said. Typically forty to sixty students and recent alumni apply each year.
Fulbright grantees, she continued, “are ultimately applying to serve a greater mission—to forge a greater understanding between the people of the US and around the world. Fully embracing Bowdoin's interdisciplinary, multifaceted education, which is rooted in curiosity, global mindedness, and cultural humility, sets students up for success.”
Strong relationships: Within Bowdoin's small academic community, students tend to cultivate close, supportive relationships with faculty and staff. "Time and again, students tell us that it was the prompting of a trusted professor, staff member, coach, or other mentor that inspired them to apply, and who buoyed their application process," Littlefield said.
Institutional support: The Office of Student Fellowships and Research offers a comprehensive, accessible advising system for applicants. Interested juniors have access to a Bowdoin-created step-by-step resource introducing them to the Fulbright Program and its application process. Every Bowdoin applicant is then interviewed by and receives feedback from Bowdoin’s Fulbright Campus Committee, made up of professors and staff. For months leading up to the final submission of their packets, students meet regularly with these advisors to discuss their individual goals and review application materials.
“Anyone can go through our process, as long as they’re meeting our internal deadlines,” Littlefield said. “Anyone can move forward. We want the opportunity to feel accessible.”
Community enthusiasm: Past success fosters broader awareness of the program. “It creates a word-of-mouth excitement and a sense that, 'Oh, I can do this, too, because I see my peers have had success with this,'” Littlefield said.
Fulbright is a program of the US Department of State, with funding provided by the US government. Participating governments and partner institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support. According to the State Department, Fulbright alumni have included forty-four heads of state or government, sixty-three Nobel Laureates, ninety-three Pulitzer Prize winners, eighty-three MacArthur Fellows, and “countless leaders from all sectors and industries across the United States and around the world.”
