(St. Mary's City, MD) October 23, 2009 -The Fulbright program announced this week that St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) had the second highest number of student Fulbrights of any public liberal arts college in the nation this year.  The college also had the highest number for all Maryland colleges and tied with numerous prestigious private institutions, including Bates, Reed, and Connecticut College. 

Two other Maryland colleges have been named top producers of 2009-2010 Fulbright scholars, including the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, which had two students accepted into the program, and the Maryland Institute College of Art, which had one student accepted. 

Kalada Nemieboka'09, of Randallstown, Maryland, has received a Fulbright grant to teach political science in Indonesia for nine months.  While teaching in Indonesia, Nemieboka plans to study Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, the three most prevalent religions in Indonesia. 

Monica Kim'09, of Columbia, Maryland, has received a Fulbright grant to teach English at a secondary school in Taiwan for nine months.  Kim is a history and Chinese culture and language double major and an Asian studies minor.  She will continue her studies in Mandarin Chinese while in Taiwan, as well as learn more about Taiwanese culture and history.

Clare Zuraw ‘05, of Ellicott City, Maryland, has received a Fulbright grant to assist in teaching English at the University of Banja Luka in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for nine months.  Zuraw graduated from SMCM with a major in anthropology and sociology and a minor in French language.  She is finishing her master's degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) at the University of Rochester in New York.  Zuraw will graduate with her master's before she leaves for Bosnia.  She plays the hammered dulcimer, banjo, and piano.  Zuraw studied abroad during the fall semester of her junior year at SMCM (2003), spending a semester in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers students funding for one academic year of study, research or assistant teaching abroad.  More than 1,500 American students were offered grants to work in more than 125 countries this fall.  The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.  It was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to "enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."  Recipients conduct research in countries overseas, and their foreign counterparts engage in similar activities in the United States.  Fulbright receives its primary source of funding through an annual appropriation from Congress. Participating governments and host institutions also contribute financially.

St. Mary's College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger's, and

The Princeton Review. Founded in 1840 as Maryland's "monument school" commemorating the state's first capital, SMCM is the state's only public honors college, offering "an Ivy-level College with a public-school price tag" (Newsweek).

Some 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities, and an SAT average for student admissions of 1848. The school's waterfront campus along the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2009 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Co-ed champions.