Toespraak minister Bussemaker bij uitreiking Fulbright beurzen

Toespraak | 16-06-2016

Thank you for that very kind introduction, Ms. Oudeman,
Ms. Lockard, Chargé d’Affaires,
Mr. Oomen, ladies and gentlemen,

A warm welcome to you all!

The presentation of the Fulbright scholarships is a long and venerable tradition - and rightly so. This afternoon I plan to stick to the instructions that Senator J. William Fulbright once gave to a very young Bill Clinton: 'Bill, say something nice, be brief, and try to get everybody out so they can enjoy this beautiful day.'

One thing is certain: for you, our brand new Fulbright scholarship students and researchers - it’s already a beautiful day. For there are few adventures more wonderful and more rewarding than working and studying in a new and stimulating environment.

I remember very well the moment I arrived in Boston, almost 20 years ago – ready to embark on a new adventure, as a visiting fellow at Harvard University. And I still see myself standing on the sidewalk at the airport – my suitcase beside me – thinking: 'Here I am. Now it is up to me.’ So I feel at least some of your excitement.

Last year I visited the American East Coast, together with Dutch students and postdocs. It was very refreshing to look at American Universities through their eyes. One of the things that struck them, for example, was the large amount of female professors they encountered.

And just 3 months ago I paid a working visit to the West Coast of the United States – Silicon Valley and environs. My visit took me to Stanford, Berkeley and the University of California. It was enormously enlightening to see with my own eyes the kinds of missions, questions and uncertainties these leading institutes are dealing with on a daily basis. It sparked all kinds of new insights as to how we can help each other and where we might have to raise our game a notch or 2.

One of the most inspiring statements I heard there was: 'Silicon Valley is a mindset, rather than a location.' I’d like to put my own spin on that statement here today: 'Being a Fulbright scholar is a mindset, rather than a program.'

After all, a period of study or research at a leading institution in the US is so much more than just an exciting adventure. If you are willing to make the most of an opportunity like this, it can be a life-changing experience.

You will return from it with new knowledge that can benefit the rest of your studies, your research and indeed your entire career. As some of you may know, I spent some time as a researcher at Harvard University. This experience – not least the chance to work with scientists from different backgrounds and traditions – has enriched my life ever since. I got to explore unknown worlds and was encouraged to look beyond to the limits of my own timeline.

This is exactly the kind of broader perspective we need nowadays – as the pace of communication continues to accelerate, distances shrink and issues take on new layers of complexity. It challenges students and professionals to communicate ever more frequently and more fluently across cultural and other boundaries. And to cooperate more intensively with colleagues from around the world – gaining a sound understanding of the lives of others and the issues they face.

Such challenges create a demand for students and professionals with a deep and growing awareness of how the world works. This not only takes knowledge and skills; above all it calls for personal development.

To achieve this you not only need worthwhile opportunities, a good education and the right people around you, but you also need a wealth of experience. The ability to change perspectives and truly engage with others. To learn from how others design and develop education and science.

And of course we need to speak other people’s languages and obtain a sense of their daily lives. What kind of issues are they living with – and how do they go about solving them?

Because it is only this level of understanding that will help you to better understand not only the world – but also yourself. To grow while making the world a better place. A practical and highly topical example in the Netherlands is the issue of how to ensure that refugee children find their way within our education system. It’s an issue of genuine urgency being faced by Dutch schools at this very moment.

In the US, migrant inclusion is a far more natural part of education and science. As part of the Fulbright program, a number of Dutch teachers will therefore undertake a ten-day trip to the US to discuss this issue with their American counterparts. American experiences can help us find ways to give migrants and their children all the opportunities for education and personal development that are open to the rest of the Netherlands.

Conversely, we nurture the hope that our own experiences can provide new insights in the US. Take, for instance, Ellen Taylor, a primary school teacher from San Diego. She has carried out research in the Netherlands, looking at how the children of Frisian-speaking parents learn Dutch as a second language. The experiences of our Frisian children are relevant to her because 2 out of 3 children at her school in California have Spanish as their first language.

Another good example is the fact that only 25 per cent of young people entitled to vote in the US actually do so.Here in the Netherlands, that figure is twice as high. Anne Ward from upstate New York has been investigating the cause of this disparity. One interesting difference is that Civic Education is taught as a separate school subject in the US, while in the Netherlands it is more integrated into other high school subjects.

Meanwhile youth councils and youth parliaments enable young people in the Netherlands to participate playfully in our democracy from an early age.

These are just 3 examples of how the Fulbright program helps us learn from each other and gives us a broader view of the world.

If we really want to change the world, this is how to go about it. And the beauty is that – in the coming year – your own new experiences will become part of this store of knowledge and mutual understanding. I would therefore like to invite you to share as many of those experiences as possible. Let your family, friends and fellow students – and also those at my ministry and the Fulbright Center – share as much as possible of what you experience and learn.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Not surprisingly, it was J. William Fulbright himself who formulated the goals of the program most eloquently. He wrote: 'The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy – the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. The exchange program is not a panacea but an avenue of hope...'
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As Fulbright scholars, you will be walking down that avenue. So after this beautiful day – I wish you a wonderful adventure. And I challenge you to make it count – so that it will not only enrich you, but our society as a whole. So that it may bring us greater knowledge and deeper understanding and, above all, more empathy.

Congratulations!