70th-anniversary recap

6 July 2021
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Fulbright Austria finally turned 70! A look back at “70 years of bright minds.”

Program participants, alums, partners, and friends tuned in online on 1 and 10 June 2021 to celebrate “70 years of bright minds.” As a milestone in Fulbright Austria’s history, we highlighted 70 years of bilateral commitment to facilitating exchange grants and 70 years of our community’s experiences with esteemed guests and partners.

Executive director Hermann Agis and the two honorary co-chairs of the Austrian-American Educational Commission Board—Austrian education minister Heinz Faßmann and US chargé d’affaires a.i. Robin Dunnigan—gave welcoming remarks and reflected on the 70th anniversary of Fulbright exchanges.

Hermann Agis thanked both governments for their valued and continued support and underlined the great effect the generous support from cherished and esteemed partners has on the enhancement of all Fulbright Austria programs and the Fulbright mission. In turn and in honor of this momentous occasion, many of our partners provided outstanding video messages of congratulations that were shared with the community.

Both honorary co-chairs and Hermann Agis also emphasized the exceptional generosity private donors show to Fulbright Austria. To date, our extraordinarily supportive donors have given over 10,000 EUR in gifts. Thanks to Minster Faßmann’s delightful announcement in December 2020 of matching funds to double third-party donations made in Austria, donations made in Austria will have double the impact.

In addition to the welcoming and celebratory remarks from our honorary co-chairs and partners, esteemed panelists on both sides of the Atlantic joined us to discuss the lasting impact third-party funding brings to Fulbright Austria and the Fulbright Program and to explore the benefits native speakers bring to the Austrian secondary-education system and their contributions to promoting mutual understanding between the peoples of Austria and the US.

The panels were moderated by 1980–81 Austrian Fulbright student Hannelore Veit and 2006–07 Austrian Fulbright student Michael Huber. The panelists included: Barbara Weitgruber, representative of the BMBWF and 1986–87 Austrian Fulbright student; Stephan Neuhäuser, representative of the BMBWF; Teta Moehs, representative of the US embassy in Vienna; 2020–21 US teaching assistant Allison Gilmore; 2019–21 US teaching assistant Ben Ellis; Michel Flek, the school director at WMS/RG/ORG Antionkriegergasse; Austrian school teacher Ursula Hüttner; Nikita Cmager, an Austrian student at a secondary school; Markus Schweiger, the executive director of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation; Adriana Lecuona, digital program officer at the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies; Kathryn Walt Hall, co-founder of the Craig and Kathryn Hall Foundation and former US ambassador to Austria; 2019–20 US Fulbright scholar Julie Elston; 2020–21 US Fulbright student Isabel Garon; 2014–15 Austrian Fulbright student Bettina Leibetseder; and Hermann Agis.

The two panel discussions and welcoming and celebratory remarks can still be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Collage of screenshots from 70th-anniversary panel discussions

Program participants, alums, partners, and other community members joined in the celebrations by hosting personal viewing parties and sharing posts on social media. During the registration phase for the 70th-anniversary celebrations, many community members provided us with personal statements to highlight the impact the Fulbright Austria program experience had on their personal and professional life. 2004–06 US teaching assistant Ashley Week Gundacker shared the following statement with us: “The program in Austria gave me a wonderfully rich opportunity: as a then 23-year-old teacher from Kansas in an Austrian high school, I had conversations I would have never otherwise had, asked and answered questions I would have never otherwise pondered, and had the chance to see daily that at the end of the day, we are all very human and wanting and deserving of the same basic needs and understanding. I am grateful to Fulbright Austria and the experience that changed my life.”

2020–21 US Fulbright scholars gather together to celebrate "70 years of bright minds."

Additionally, three press releases and an interview with Hermann Agis in SOCIETY Magazine were released (in German):