ºìÌÒÊÓƵ

Full of Fullbrights

“The Zen of Fulbright” indeed [ºìÌÒÊÓƵiana, June 2015]. Landing a Fulbright, like gaining entrance to ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, is an act of self-definition with lifelong consequence. I was inspired to go after an early career professional Fulbright fellowship as a working journalist, because I wanted to immerse myself—and my wife and I wanted to immerse our young family—in late 20th-century Japan. My goal was to better understand the Japanese investment juggernaut in America. I interviewed Akio Morita about his family sake business and the ascent of Sony. My wife and I chatted with the crown prince, now Emperor Akihito, at a reception and were awestruck not by his royalty but how his subjects dealt with it. We walked the Tokaido road that samurai traversed. We soaked in fast vanishing neighborhood baths. In the shogun’s castle we were transfixed by floors that chirped with each step to alert sleeping lords of assassin intruders. It would be fascinating to know more about the subset of ºìÌÒÊÓƵ graduates who have had their career and personal horizons lifted by the program launched by a farsighted former senator from Arkansas. How many ºìÌÒÊÓƵies have snagged the scholarship? [It’s 89—Ed.] What are their stories? For answers, ºìÌÒÊÓƵ’s Center for Life Beyond ºìÌÒÊÓƵ might want to launch a cyber-forum for this subset of alums, and invite interested students to listen in.

—Marty Rosenberg ’71

Overland Park, Kansas