Rollins Named Top Producer of Fulbright Scholars

Rollins has once again been named a top producer of Fulbright Students by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for the 2025-26 year. This marks the 13th time that the College has achieved this notable distinction, continuing a legacy of lifelong leadership and international service among graduates.

“Congratulations on Rollins College’s designation as a ‘Top Producing Institution’ of Fulbright U.S. Students in 2025-26,” says Jason Czyz, president and CEO of the Institute of International Education (IIE). “Fulbright Top Producing Institutions such as Rollins value global connection and support members of their campus communities across the United States to pursue international opportunities. Together, by creating strategic and life-changing opportunities for America’s extraordinary students and scholars, we are strengthening American leadership in the world.”

For 80 years, the Fulbright Program, which was created under the Truman administration in the wake of World War II, has stood as the U.S. government’s flagship educational exchange program, with nearly 450,000 participants who have served in 160 countries across the globe. The prestigious program provides students, scholars, and professionals from all backgrounds the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to complex global challenges. Past scholars have gone on to become Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows, heads of state, authors, artists, and business leaders. Top-producing institutions are named annually in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Rollins received its first Fulbright in 1951—just five years after the program’s inception. Since then, the College has produced nearly 100 Fulbright Students, with nearly 70 of those named since 2006. In the past 20 years, Rollins has also produced 19 Fulbright Scholars, with a total of 32 awards since the 1960s. These numbers are a testament to Rollins’ emphasis on global citizenship as a tenet of its signature brand of liberal arts education.

The latest group of Tars to join Rollins’ storied history of Fulbright Students includes Katherine Kim ’24, Pia Hernandez ’25, and Sophia Cassa ’25. Cassa is currently teaching English in the Slovak Republic, while Hernandez will pursue a master’s degree in choral conducting in Portugal, and Kim is participating in the U.S.-Mexico Binational Business Program in Mexico.

“The Fulbright application affords students an opportunity to articulate the value of the broad range of high-impact learning experiences they accumulate over their four years at Rollins,” shares Kim Dennis, art history professor and director of the Office of External Fellowships & Scholarships. “Several distinctive elements of a Rollins education prepare students particularly well for postgraduate opportunities like the Fulbright: our interdisciplinary approach to the liberal arts, the accessibility of the Student-Faculty Collaborative Scholarship Program, our strong culture of service learning and study abroad, and the individualized mentoring provided by our faculty.”

The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the U.S. also provide direct and indirect support. To learn more about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org/.