Backgrounder on PFSA

The Fulbright program in the Philippines, launched in 1948, is the oldest continuing Fulbright program in the world. The Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association, organized in 1959, is most likely the oldest active Fulbright alumni organization in the world. The 2,000 or so members of the association include numerous individuals that made and are making a huge difference in the national life of the Philippines, including a Supreme Court Chief Justice, a Senate President, several lawmakers and cabinet officials, National Artists, National Scientists, university presidents, and a huge number of other persons in positions of authority and responsibility.

The Association has worked with other organizations to make the Fulbright program more visible, as well as to promote the objectives that define the program itself. For example, we have worked with the other alumni organizations in the Philippines, as well as in Southeast Asia, and also with the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution and various universities.

We have published books, sponsored lectures, done community projects, given awards to outstanding alumni, and even successfully nominated former President Corazon Aquino for the 1996 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.

Our individual and organizational achievements reinforce what is at the core of our association, which is a shared vision coming from the shared experience of having lived, studied, and worked in the United States. That vision is a vision of a world at peace, free not only from war and terrorism, but from the worse evils of hunger, poverty, disease, and oppression. We work individually and collectively to help our country and our region to create and to maintain societies where persons can realize their full potential as free, creative, and critical human beings.