Gillian Smith serves as the chief marketing officer for City Year, the first ever for the education-oriented service organization dedicated to helping students and their communities succeed. She joined City Year after serving in a similar post at Teach for America. A 1995 summa cum laude graduate of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, Gillian Smith won a Fulbright scholarship and spent the year after graduation as a teaching assistant in a high school in Germany.

1. THE FULBRIGHT
SCHOLAR PROGRAM
By Gillian Smith, City Year

2. Introduction
 Gillian Smith serves as the chief marketing officer for City
Year, the first ever for the education-oriented service
organization dedicated to helping students and their
communities succeed. She joined City Year after serving in a
similar post at Teach for America. A 1995 summa cum laude
graduate of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, Gillian
Smith won a Fulbright scholarship and spent the year after
graduation as a teaching assistant in a high school in
Germany.
In 1946, U.S. Senator James William Fulbright established a
merit-based scholarship program to support an international
exchange of students, artists, scholars, teachers, scientists,
and professionals. The program was founded to encourage
the exchange of skills, knowledge, and ideas through the
exchange of people.

3. Fulbright Scholar Program
 The program has always been highly competitive,
and today is administered by the Department of
State in conjunction with cooperating agencies in
the U.S. and more than 100 other countries.
The purpose of a Fulbright grant is to fund a U.S.
recipient’s study abroad, or to fund study in the
U.S. for a foreign citizen. Roughly 8,000 grants
are awarded every year, about 4,900 to foreign
students and scholars, 2,800 to U.S. students and
scholars, and the balance to other classifications,
such as scientists, artists, and professionals.

4. Conclusion
 There’s a somewhat confusing distinction
between students and scholars in the Fulbright
program. Fulbright “students” are typically
those who have not yet achieved a doctorate
or other terminal degree in their field, while
“scholars” are those who’ve completed their
doctorates and are performing additional
research. However, it’s accepted to refer to
any recipient of a Fulbright grant as a Fulbright
scholar, even those outside academia, like
scientists, artists, and professionals.