This year, 24 Stanford students and alums were awarded scholarships by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2010-11 academic year.

The Fulbright Program was originally created in 1946 by Congress to promote a mutual understanding between foreign countries. Sponsored by the Department of State, the program awards approximately 1,500 grants to American students each year, and is designed to provide these students with the funding and opportunity to gain international experience in one of the 155 countries where the program is offered. Each participant will study overseas for nine months to a year, researching and exploring a self-designed project.

According to John Pearson, director of the Bechtel International Center, Stanford students’ success in recent years is due to the quality of education the University offers, the support that Stanford faculty provide and the exceptional quality of applications.

“When you pull all of this together, students have all the information, they are very good at research and they have a very good network to draw upon — they’re also getting really good support from the faculty and their advisors,” Pearson said, adding that the opportunity for undergrads to pursue independent studies also helped students prepare better applications.

Stanford’s 2010-11 Fulbright Scholars include 10 graduating seniors, two graduating master’s students, five doctoral candidates and seven alumni. The Stanford students and alumni will travel to 17 countries, including Ecuador, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and South Africa.

Stanford University’s 2010-11 Fulbright scholars:

Brian Brege (Ph.D. candidate in history), Philippe de Koning ’10 (B.A. in international relations), Lauren Finzer ’09 (B.A. in human biology), Amanda Gelender ’10 (B.A. in drama and political science), Kathryn Hymes (M.S. in computational & mathematical engineering), Sarah Ives (Ph.D. candidate in anthropology), Melissa Jones ’10 (B.A. in urban studies), Jillian Keenan ’09 (M.A. in journalism; B.A. in English ‘08), Karen Knee (Ph.D. candidate in geological & environmental sciences), Lily Kornbluth ’10 (B.A. in human biology), Amy Kwon (B.S. in biomechanical engineering, ‘10), Kim Liao (B.A. in modern thought & literature, ‘06), Jessie Liu ’09 (B.A. in human biology), Ken Martinez (M.A. in Russian area studies), Nimi Mastey ’10 (B.A. in human biology), Thomas McFadden ’08 (B.A. in human biology), Sarah Mummah ’10 (B.A. in human biology), Andrew Plan ’10 (B.A. in human biology), Nikhil Saralkar (M.S. in mechanical engineering), Samuel Stone ’10 (B.A./B.S. in international relations and mathematics), Joanna Sturiano (Ph.D. candidate in Japanese literature), Molly Vallor (Ph.D. candidate in Japanese literature), Sarah Vick ’10 (B.S. in physics), Mark West (M.A. in education)

— Jane LePham