German dept. sweeps Fulbrights

As professor Micheal Resler explained it, 2007 was a "tsunami" year for the German department at Boston College. The tsunami that Resler was referring to was the record-setting number of Fulbright scholarships awarded from his department to study in Germany this year - 13 in all. The number of Fulbright winners eclipses the then-record-setting amount of eight winners two years ago, and highlights the department's success over the past decade in receiving Fulbright scholarships.

One of the smallest departments at BC, the German department has consistently ranked among the top departments in the country in the number of Fulbrights, with approximately 68 winners over the past decade. The 13 Fulbright recipients were: Atlas Anagnos, A&S '07; Nathaniel Campbell, A&S '07; Stefanie Casillas, A&S '07; Keith Fleischer, A&S '07; Lauren Kestel, A&S '07; Christine Kochefko, A&S '07; Patrick McGroarty, A&S '07; Sascha Rubin, A&S '07; Melissa Ruhry, A&S '07; Jennifer Thibault, A&S '07; Lauren Tran, A&S '07; Amanda Watral, A&S '07; and Paul White, A&S '07.

Although the Fulbright Committee, which awards the scholarships, does not keep track of the statistics such as these, many academic scholars believe that this year represents the largest amount of Fulbrights awarded to one department to study in a specific country in the 60-year history program.

"It's off the charts. We were trying to make up a word for in German to describe this, but no phrase is as good - they were simply off the charts. Nobody has sent this many students to one single country in a year," said Resler, the director of the German department and mentor to many of the Fulbright awardees.

Perhaps most telling about the department's feat is the department's relatively small size and its lack of a graduate program. According to Resler, many other universities have a graduate and doctoral programs in German, which lends to a high rate of Fulbrights - something that BC lacks.

"BC has three different size departments, large departments, medium, and small. We are the tiny one. But that's probably an ingredient to our success. Because we are small, we able to build a lot of tender loving care for our students," said Resler.

The Fulbright winners couldn't agree more. White, who will be researching Germany's preemptive decision to recognize Croatia in 1991 as well as ongoing arms trafficking in the Balkan Peninsula, noted the department's family atmosphere as a catalyst to the number of Fulbrights the department is consistently awarded.

"Despite being a prominent research university, the BC faculty is incredibly available to its undergraduate students. [The application] absolutely turns on the tight-knit family that professor Resler cultivates in the German department year after year," said White.

"Because the department is relatively small, I get the impression that the German faculty is better equipped to engage their students both inside and out of the classroom. This translates into better applications," said White.

White said his ability to cultivate personal relationships with faculty members was key to his personal and academic development, emphasizing the guidance he received from Resler and professor Timothy Crawford of the political science department.

In fact, many of the students in the department attribute the Fulbright success in part to the advising process they receive throughout the application. Campbell, who will be studying at the University of Munster in Germany, emphasized this point. "Boston College, especially the German studies department, have become very good at pinpointing what factors are necessary to produce a successful proposal, and much of our success has come from the fact that our advisers have 'figured out' the process," he said.

Resler, is quick to deflect the praise: "It's all the students. Ultimately, they get it on their own - they wouldn't get it if they didn't work hard. They deserve all the credit," said Resler. n