They come from Cambodia and Argentina, Namibia and Japan, Albania and Panama. This summer, 23 Fulbright scholars representing 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas have converged on Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ for an intensive academic launchpad — the final preparation before they begin graduate study at some of the most competitive universities in the United States.
The four-week Fulbright Pre-Academic Program, running July 13 through Aug. 7, is hosted by the Gerald H. Read Center for International and Intercultural Education in the College of Education and Human Services, in partnership with the English as a Second Language Center in the College of Science and Humanities. It's a collaboration that puts the full breadth of Ä¢¹½´«Ã½'s academic community to work on a single goal: helping the world's most promising emerging scholars arrive at their destination campuses ready to excel.
And those destinations are formidable. This year's cohort is bound for graduate programs at Columbia, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and more than a dozen other institutions. Two scholars — from Indonesia and South Korea — will pursue doctorates. The rest are headed into master's programs spanning a remarkable range of disciplines: meteorology and biomedical engineering, law and public health, economics, data science, agriculture, computer science and public policy.
More Than English
Classes are small and personal, and the work goes well beyond grammar. Scholars step up to graduate-level presentations and dig into what it means to join the global Fulbright network. Along the way, Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ becomes their first American campus — a place to find their footing before the fall semester begins.
Then the classroom walls come down. The cohort will stand at the edge of Niagara Falls, take in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, catch a show at Cleveland's Playhouse Square, and roll up their sleeves alongside Habitat for Humanity — trading textbook English for the real thing, one experience at a time.
A Northeast Ohio Welcome
Perhaps the most enduring feature of the program isn't on any syllabus. Each scholar is matched with a local friendship family — Kent households who open their homes for meals, outings and conversation, offering a personal window into American life that no textbook can replicate. Many of these host families return year after year, and the friendships they form often outlast the program by decades.
That community warmth, paired with Ä¢¹½´«Ã½'s close-knit campus and safe setting, is exactly what makes the university such a strong first stop on a Fulbright scholar's American journey.
"These scholars will go on to lead ministries, labs, courtrooms and classrooms all over the world — but it's the small things that stay with them: a friendship family's dinner table, a first look at Niagara Falls, the confidence to stand up and present in a second language," said Amanda Johnson, Ph.D., program director and director of the Gerald H. Read Center. "For four weeks, Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ gets to be where that next chapter begins — and we don't take that lightly."
"Our ESL faculty bring decades of expertise in English language teaching and intercultural communication to the Fulbright Pre-Academic Program," said Debbie Rozner, Ed.D., co-principal investigator and director of the English as a Second Language Center. "Their goal is helping participants refine the communication skills they'll need as scholars — building confidence, increasing flexibility across different academic and social contexts, and giving them opportunities to practice the kinds of authentic language tasks they'll encounter throughout their Fulbright experience."
The Ripple Effect
When the cohort departs on Aug. 8, its members will scatter across the country to begin their degrees. But the connections forged this summer — to one another, to their host families, and to Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ — travel with them. For nearly four decades, the Read Center has built exactly this kind of global bridge, and the Class of 2026 is its newest span.
They arrived as 23 individuals from 20 countries. They'll leave as a single Fulbright cohort — and as ambassadors carrying a little bit of Kent, Ohio, out into the world.
The Fulbright Pre-Academic Program is hosted by Ä¢¹½´«Ã½, administered by the Institute of International Education and funded by the U.S. Department of State.