As we enter the final few weeks of 2023 and look forward to the beginning of a new year, I wish everyone in the extended Fulbright Canada family a happy holiday season and a healthy, peaceful, and productive new year.
Thanks to your patience and support, we survived the pandemic. We emerged more robust than ever and were, in 2023, even more unwavering in our commitment to do our part to make a difference in the world. I would like to thank all of you for your participation, engagement, support, and encouragement. To be honest, we could not have done it without you.
I would like to take this opportunity to share a few highlights from 2023 and note some exciting new initiatives as we head into the new year.
We conducted a thorough review of our programs and priorities. The strategic planning exercise reaffirmed Fulbright Canada’s core values of Excellence, Inclusion, Innovation, and Impact and our foundational commitment to access, equity, diversity, and inclusion (AEDI), community engagement, and brand awareness. We arrived at a renewed commitment to strengthen and enlarge our core Fulbright offerings, expand our broad mandate programs like Killam and Honouring Nations Canada, create new initiatives that reflect the priorities and needs of our community, and increase engagement with the Fulbright Canada community. The latter involves more alum engagement, new partnerships in several areas, and more community involvement.
A key focus is to ensure that we are offering promising youth, students, and scholars from all backgrounds exceptional enrichment experiences through conferences, professional development, and community engagement to support and position future leaders as they look to share their perspectives and actions by helping their communities, promoting mutual understanding, and contributing to a more peaceful, healthy, equitable, and prosperous world.
We were pleased to support another incredible and inspiring cohort of students and scholars whose work is meaningful and impactful.
Beyond our traditional programs, several highlights come to mind:
- The Fulbright Arctic Initiative III (FAI III). We wrapped up the FAI III with a week-long series of events in Washington, D.C., featuring the work of individual scholars and the collaborative work of Fulbright scholars from across the Arctic Circle. The scholars engaged directly with U.S. policymakers and members of the diplomatic community.
- Honouring Nations Canada. We continued to work with Indigenous communities to find ways to support good governance and traditional ways of knowing. We supported ten truly exceptional Indigenous youth who travelled to Boston to visit the Peabody Museum, the Harvard Kennedy School Program on Native American Economic Development, and MIT Solve. They even managed to see a Bruins game and a Red Sox game.
- The Canada Colloquium 2023. We hosted a series of events in Honolulu, in partnership with the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, which addressed ‘Challenges to Democracy and Democratic Institutions .’The program included an authors’ workshop, a youth forum, and an open town hall. Fulbright scholars and alum were a big part of this successful event.
- The Fulbright Canada Energy Security and Sustainability Initiative (FCESS). Through a generous gift from Mike and Sue Rose, we were pleased to announce our new Fulbright program on energy security and sustainability. This initiative will support many Fulbright students, scholars and specialists undertaking policy-relevant research in this critical area.
- The Fulbright Canada Entrepreneurship Initiative (FCEI). Mindful of the challenges around the future of work and the increasing interest in and importance of entrepreneurship, with the support of Alacrity Canada, we launched a pilot program designed to create an innovative Fulbright initiative that supports and mentors Fulbright students who are interested in founding companies driven by a commitment to positive social change.
As you can see, there are a lot of exciting new opportunities at Fulbright Canada. Please visit our website at Fulbright.ca, contact me or my colleagues, and share these opportunities with family, friends, and colleagues.
I hope you all have a relaxing holiday and return in the new year as excited as I am to do what Fulbrighters have always done. We are change makers who embrace the challenges we collectively face and work tirelessly to solve them.
With the warmest of holiday wishes,
Michael K. Hawes, President and CEO, Fulbright Canada