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Friends University Professor To Participate In Fulbright Program

Courtesy Gretchen Eick
Friends University Professor Emerita and three-time Fulbright Scholar Gretchen Eick with her husband, Michael Poage, in Srebinica, Bosnia, in 2010.

Universities in Wichita have produced Fulbright Scholars in the past, including Wichita State University President John Bardo. This year, Friends University has produced two, including one historian who's been a Fulbright scholar three times. She leaves on Wednesday to teach at a university in Bosnia.

The prestigious Fulbright Program, operated by the U.S. Department of State, helps to increase understanding between Americans and people in other countries. The program offers grants to study, teach and conduct research in 190 countries.

Gretchen Eick is currently an adjunct professor at Friends University, where she taught history for 20 years. As a Fulbright Scholar, she's taught in northern Europe and studied in South Africa. In Bosnia, Eick will teach mostly Muslims students, but Croatian Christians will also be in class.

"We're using the American experience to try to look at what can we learn from the failures and the successes of multiculturalism in this country that could be applied as they think about how do they come to be able to trust each other," Eick says.

Another Friends University professor and Fulbright Scholar, Lakshmi Kambampati, is teaching math in India. Fifty-three Fulbright Scholars have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Carla Eckels is assistant news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.