ECU professor earns Fulbright to Poland

(Sept. 7, 2001)   —   Robert Frankel, a business professor at East Carolina University, has been awarded a Fulbright grant that will send him abroad for teaching assignments in Poland.

The announcement naming Dr. Frankel as an award recipient was made recently by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board. He is one of about 2,000 U.S. scholars who will receive the grants to live and travel in other countries during the 2001-2002 academic year. Frankel, a marketing professor in the ECU School of Business, will reside in Lublin, Poland from February to June of 2002. He will teach graduate and undergraduate courses in international marketing at the Maria Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin; a city of 350,000 located about two hours south of Warsaw.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” said Frankel. “I think it will be interesting to teach these courses in a different part of the world.”

He said he will teach his classes in English, but he has purchased books and tapes to help him learn some of the common Polish phrases and words. The professor is no stranger to travel in Eastern Europe or to other parts of the world. He’s been to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia. During the past two summers he’s led student visits to Belize and to Australia. He said he chose to apply for the Fulbright award to Poland because the country is more modern than what most people believe.

“It has an economy and basic social structure that is very advanced,” Frankel said. He said the academic system is geared toward formal lectures rather than project assignments and other presentation techniques.

Frankel joined the ECU School of Business in 1995. He was born in New York and also lived in California. His doctorate degree is from the University of Michigan. The Fulbright Program is America’s flagship international educational exchange program and is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. It was established under legislation introduced in 1946 by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas as a way to build mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and the rest of the world. In its 55 years it has provided exchange opportunities to 88,000 American who have studied, taught or conducted research abroad. More than 146,000 students, scholars and professionals from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States under the program.

Recipient of Fulbright awards are elected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.