History
Fulbright@Rice officially formed in 2017. Seiichi Matsuda, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies, invited all current Rice Fulbrighters to a Happy Hour at Valhalla, Rice's grad student bar. At that first meeting,Sólveig Sigurðardóttir, Magnús Örn Sigurðsson, and Andrew Battaglia joined, and discussed the formation of a Fulbright Community on the Rice campus, centered around the mission of Fulbright - international and educational exchange.
From that meeting, the group solidified and began meeting over lunch, Happy Hours at Valhalla, and welcome activities for each new cohort of Fulbrighters, beginning with the 2018 matriculating cohort. A leadership group (The Ring, led by the Fulbright Community Leader - formerly Ringleader) began to meet regularly to plan a slate of events for all Fulbrighters on the Rice campus.
Fulbright Community Leader History
2017-2020: Sólveig Sigurðardóttir
2020-2021: Elsa Acosta De Anda
2021-2022: Aaron Bayles
2022-2023: Raul Rincon
2023-2024: Eliana Cadena Semanate
2024-2025: Gabriel Diaz
2025-2026: Megha Bahl