MATC Named Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Scholars

Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) is pleased to announce it has been named a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Scholars for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Fulbright is the United States government’s flagship international academic exchange program. Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals accepted in the competitive program to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects in affiliation with institutes abroad.

MATC is one of only 12 honorees in the associate and baccalaureate/associate institution category, and only one of three technical colleges.

“We are so pleased to have received this honor which represents the commitment and dedication of our faculty, and the diversity of America’s higher education community,” said MATC President Vicki J. Martin, Ph.D. “This affirms that our faculty are seeking greater opportunities to explore, grow and learn concepts they can bring back to MATC for the betterment of the college. I congratulate them, and all the Fulbrighters who are making a positive impact across the world.”

Peter Burzynski, MATC lecturer of English and communications, is MATC’s 2023-2024 Fulbright scholar. He expresses his love for writing and especially poetry, which he discovered in a Milwaukee area high school.

“I would read poems for four and five hours at a time at night,” said Burzynski. “I’d sleep for two hours, then do all my homework at school in the morning. Poetry was the perfect outlet for my excess energy, for my sadness, for my darkest feelings,” he remembered. “Poetry helped me find my true self.”

“Not everyone can write poetry,” he said. “There is an art and a passion to it. For people who want to be poets, I tell them to read, read, read until you come across something that reaches you.”

Burzynski is currently in Slovakia in central Europe, where he is teaching at a university, conducting research at several museums and working on a book about growing up in his parents’ Polish restaurant.

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support.

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges.

MATC has had several other Fulbright Scholars which you can read about here.

The official announcement of Fulbright’s Top Producing Institutions for 2023-2024 is published in the online edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education and on the Fulbright Program website at https://fulbrightprogram.org.

The 2023 Fulbright Top Producing Institutions were recognized February 20, 2024 in Washington, D.C., during the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) annual conference.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.