Harriet Fulbright visits New Zealand

Harriet Fulbright, widow of the Fulbright programme’s founder Senator J. William Fulbright, visited Wellington in December to help launch Fulbright New Zealand’s 60th Anniversary celebrations in 2008.

Harriet Fulbright (second right) pictured with Hon Chris Carter, Ambassador William McCormick and Rt Hon Helen Clark

At a parliamentary reception in her honour, Mrs Fulbright spoke of the contributions, contributors and lasting value of the educational exchange programme her late husband founded in 1946.

She described how Senator Fulbright’s own Rhodes Scholarship exchange convinced him in the aftermath of World War II “that if future potential leaders could follow in his footsteps, they would, when in actual leadership positions, be far more willing to exchange ideas instead of bullets.”

She noted that many US congressmen of both parties had since hailed the Fulbright programme as among the most important tools of public diplomacy. “And for all its importance and widespread influence,” she added, “sixty years of the Fulbright programme has cost less than three days of defense at present levels, so it is one of the best investments the country has ever made.”

Mrs Fulbright commended the courage of Fulbright scholars, many of whom were in the audience. “It takes real courage to leave the comfort of familiar faces and places, to enter a world of strange ways of relating to other people, often communicating in a strange language and living in a different climate. Interacting with citizens of a foreign country can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassing situations, and yet the Fulbright scholar has worked hard for this privilege and is more than willing to put up with the difficulties.”

Mrs Fulbright was welcomed at the reception by Prime Minister Helen Clark, newly-appointed Minister of Education Chris Carter and US Ambassador to New Zealand William McCormick. She acknowledged the “climate of support and enthusiasm” for the Fulbright programme in New Zealand as it enters its sixtieth year of operation.

Mrs Fulbright joins the Fulbright New Zealand Board for Christmas lunch

As part of a busy programme of events during her visit to Wellington, Mrs Fulbright joined the Fulbright New Zealand Board for an end-of-year Christmas lunch and the Board’s last meeting for 2007. She also met with a variety of educational and cultural organisations including the Ministry of Education, Te Papa Tongarewa and Victoria University, and was given a guided tour of Waiwhetū Marae.

As President of the non-profit J. William & Harriet Fulbright Center, Mrs Fulbright continues to promote the late Senator J. William Fulbright’s vision of world peace and nonviolent means of resolving conflicts. She travels the world regularly to speak on these topics.