Yes friends, the 2009 April Fools joke about Obama attending Occidental College as a foreign student on a Fulbright Scholarship is getting a boost with the discovery of the Fulbright Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD) promoted on the Indonesian Universitas Gadja Mada web site.
According to World Learning, (they administer the program for East Asia and the Pacific, including Indonesia) the Global UGRAD program spans the years 2008 – 2013. According to World Learning:
All participants are issued U.S. student exchange (J-1) visas. Upon conclusion of their scholarship, students must return to their home countries to complete their undergraduate degree.
Students must meet these criteria:
- Be citizens of participating countries: Burma, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
- Apply through the U.S. Embassy (Public Affairs Section) or Fulbright Commission in their home country. Students are selected on the basis of academic excellence, leadership potential, and preparedness for study in the U.S.
- Be enrolled as an undergraduate in good standing and not be entering the final year of their studies at the time of application.
Well, the details also say that you must have finished at least one semester at an Indonesian university. And you must “return” to Indonesia when the program is finished.
Two conditions Obama could not possibly have met, but of course the birfers are going to say it was different in the old days.
2008? Obama was too busy running for president to take advantage of this program, wasn’t he?