Administrator receives Fulbright to Japan

Ken Carpenter, associate director of International Programs and Studies, has been selected to travel to Japan this summer as part of the U.S.-Japan International Education Administrators Program. The Fulbright Scholarship Board and the U.S. Department of State, program sponsors, announced that Carpenter is one of six U.S. university administrators chosen to spend June 2005 in Japan to participate in seminars and other special programs dealing with the Japanese educational system.

The participants will visit universities and meet with Japanese educators in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto and other cities.

According to Carpenter, the trip to Japan will also provide an opportunity to make contacts with Japanese universities, to promote UNM and New Mexico, and to help recruit more Japanese students to our campus.

“Internationalization has become a major priority at UNM in the past few years,” Carpenter said. “There have been a number of recent initiatives at UNM aimed at expanding our ties with Asia, and we would like to develop new programs with one or more Japanese universities to exchange students and faculty and cooperate on research and cultural programs. I hope the time I spend there will result in some new relationships with Japan.”

The Fulbright program, founded in 1946 to promote international exchanges and understanding, provides funding for the exchange of students, scholars and professionals between the U.S. and more 140 other nations. The Japan Fulbright program was established in 1951, and receives funds from both the U.S. Congress and the Japanese government to give grants each year to Japanese and U.S. students and scholars in a number of different fields of study.

Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920