Brenda Tooley, director of Knox College's Eleanor Stellyes Center for Global Studies, was among 12 representatives from U.S. colleges and universities invited to a weeklong tour of Hungary, organized by the Hungarian Fulbright Commission and funded by the U.S. State Department.

The event, known as the U.S. Study Abroad Capacity Building workshop, took place during the summer and was designed to build and strengthen connections between institutions of higher education in the United States and Hungary. Continuing to develop those relationships paves the way for more students in the United States to learn about—and participate in—study abroad opportunities in Hungary, Tooley said.

Tooley noted that Knox's pre-approved study abroad programs include two prestigious opportunities in Hungary: Budapest Semesters in Mathematics and AIT: Creativity in Computer Science.

"Our pre-approved programs in Hungary are excellent choices for math and science students, and Hungary offers many additional student-initiated opportunities for study, especially in the areas of music and European studies," she said.

About 50 percent of Knox students participate in study abroad and off-campus programs at some point in their undergraduate education. Knox offers its students more than 100 pre-approved programs for study abroad and other off-campus study. If a student is interested in a program that isn't on Knox's pre-approved list, the student may petition for permission to apply for it.

Many of the participants in the Capacity Building Tour were, like Tooley, past recipients of Fulbright scholarships. Tooley's Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, in 2010, was a combined research and teaching award that enabled her to teach in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Veliko Tarnovo. She also explored junior faculty perceptions of belonging and access to professional development and engagement within their universities in Bulgaria, while reflecting with colleagues upon student and faculty understanding of the value of international study.

In 2017, she was selected for another Fulbright honor: a second Fulbright Senior Scholar award, through which she will teach and conduct research at the University of Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria in the spring of 2018.

Her wide international experience also includes participating in a Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar in Brazil in 2001; receiving a teaching appointment at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, in 2005; participating as an incoming Fulbright Scholar in the Fulbright International Summer Institute in Bulgaria in 2009, and serving as an instructor in the Fulbright International Summer Institute in Bulgaria in 2012 and 2014. She has participated in many conference presentations in her field of 18th-century British literature, as well as about admissions outreach to international students in situations of crisis and displacement. She also has traveled extensively—primarily in South Asia and the Pacific Rim—on behalf of the institutions where she has worked.

Photo above: Brenda Tooley in Debrecen, Hungary.