University named Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leader

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs has named Delaware State University on its list of Fulbright Historically Black Colleges and Universities Institutional Leaders.

Delaware State University joined 18 other HBCUs in being named Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leaders, a recognition that commends the strong partnership between the J. William Fulbright Program and these HBCUs. It is also hoped that the commendations will encourage other HBCUs to increase their engagement with Fulbright, which provides opportunities for students, faculty and staff to study, teach or conduct research abroad and access valuable international experience and perspectives..

Since 2001, six Delaware State University faculty members have been selected for Fulbright Services. Those selected include:

• Dr. Ladji Sacko, Professor of French – Dr. Sacko is a two-time Fulbright Scholar selectee. In 2001-2002, he served by teaching English in Dakar, Senegal, and in 2014-2015 he went to the Ivory Coast in West Africa where he trained teachers to give English instruction in secondary schools.
• Dr. Kevina Vulinec, Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources – With her Fulbright award, Dr. Vulinec traveled to Brazil in the spring of 2011 to teach and conduct research on seed-dispersing bats in that country’s tropical rainforest. In 2016, she was named Fulbright Alumni Ambassador, a role in which she traveled to institutions of higher education throughout the country to talk about her Fulbright experiences and share information about the program.
• Dr. Constant Beugre, Professor of Management – Dr. Beugre used his Fulbright scholarship to travel to Ghana where he helped Methodist University establish a business incubator, taught a class on entrepreneurship, and conducted research on “Fostering Entrepreneurial Eco-Systems in sub-Saharan Africa.”
• Dr. Nandita Das, Professor of Finance – Dr. Das received a Fulbright Scholar Grant in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As result, her service was delayed until this year (2022), when she taught Portfolio Management and Security Analysis at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong in India.
• Dr. Kalpalatha Melmaiee, Associate Professor of Plant Breeding and Molecular Genetics – Dr. Melmaiee was selected to be a Fulbright Specialist last summer to go back her native India, where at Tamil Nadu Agriculture University she shared knowledge on the advancements in genomics and phonemics in such breeding solutions with researchers, faculty and students at that school.
• Dr. Odun Balogun, a former Professor of Literature – He was awarded aFulbright grant to teach American Literature and Culture at the University of Benin in Nigeria during the 2012-2013 school year.

Delaware State University President Tony Allen notes that the question of whether HBCU faculty and students engage with the world has been asked and answered for more than 100 years.

“But Fulbright’s engagement with and recognition of Delaware State University as a 2022 Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leader affirms our role – among and alongside our sister/brother institutions – as a key player on the ever-shrinking world stage,” Dr. Allen said. “HBCUs are the driving forces of Black social mobility, the defining voices in Black America, and a critical voice in American scholarship. Together with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, we, at Delaware State University, seek to amplify that voice.”