New Wyoming Fulbright Chapter Kicks Off With First Statewide Gathering in Laramie

The newly formed Wyoming Chapter of the Fulbright Association is throwing its first big statewide event Wednesday night in Laramie — and everyone’s invited, Laramie Boomerang reports.

The gathering starts at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 2229 E. Grand Ave. The evening will celebrate 80 years of the Fulbright Program and spotlight Wyoming students and faculty who’ve taken their learning and teaching global.

The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

Recent Fulbrighters — including University of Wyoming faculty and students — will share what it’s really like to live, study and teach abroad in places like Costa Rica, Israel, Poland and Myanmar.

The night will kick off with rotating roundtable conversations where attendees can sit down with Wyoming Fulbright alumni, hear their stories firsthand and ask questions. Planned discussion tables include:

• Poland – UW agroecology professor Urszula Norton will talk about her 2025 Fulbright work at Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, where she’s focusing on soil health and sustainable agriculture.
• Israel – UW visual communication design professor Brandon Gellis will share his 2023 Fulbright experience at Shenkar College in Tel Aviv. His ongoing research looks at street art, graffiti and visual marks as responses to political and social conflict, and what they say about belonging and identity.
• Costa Rica – UW students Libby Bassett (Burlington), Francie Scott (Cheyenne) and Marilee Williams (Saratoga) will talk about their eight-week Spanish immersion in Monteverde. Bassett helped teach English to local tourism workers, while Scott and Williams compared mountain ecosystems in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest with Costa Rica’s cloud forest.
• Myanmar – UW teacher education professor Amy Roberts and her son Fernando Miguel Roberts will reflect on their two years in Mandalay. Amy led peace education workshops, taught graduate research courses and supported faculty scholarship. Fernando became the first US student to enroll in a K–12 school in Mandalay.

After the storytelling sessions, representatives of the new Wyoming Chapter will lay out ways people can get involved — even if they’ve never been abroad.

Opportunities include:

• Joining the chapter or its board;
• Helping plan programs and events;
• Doing outreach to Wyoming schools and community colleges;
• Building partnerships across the state;
• Mentoring or connecting with current and future Fulbrighters.

There will also be time to meet Fulbright visitors from other countries and swap ideas about global education and exchange.

“This is an opportunity to shape the future of Fulbright programming and global engagement in Wyoming,” Amy Roberts said. “Besides Fulbright alumni, we hope anyone who wants to explore international study or teaching — or is simply curious about Fulbright — will join us.”

Chavawn Kelley, a 2025 Fulbright-Hays Scholar in Costa Rica, added that the chapter is answering founder Sen. J. William Fulbright’s call for alumni to build an active, engaged community:

“We want to join others in sharing our enthusiasm for the ideals of the Fulbright Program.”

The Fulbright Program is the US government’s flagship international exchange initiative, supporting academic, cultural and professional exchanges in more than 160 countries. Applicants don’t have to be tied to a university to apply — teachers, professionals, artists and community leaders are all eligible.

Since 1946, more than 400,000 people have taken part in Fulbright exchanges. Alumni include:

• 40 current or former heads of state or government;
• 61 Nobel laureates;
• 89 Pulitzer Prize winners;
• 76 MacArthur “genius grant” fellows;
• 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.

The Fulbright Association — with 54 local chapters, now including Wyoming — is the independent nonprofit alumni network that keeps that global community connected and active.

Wyoming’s new chapter hopes to:

• Expand local exchange and leadership opportunities;
• Support Wyomingites who want to go abroad;
• Help international Fulbrighters feel at home in the state;
• Keep global perspectives flowing into Wyoming classrooms and communities.

Anyone interested in the Wyoming Chapter can email Chavawn Kelley at [email protected] or Amy Roberts at [email protected].