FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- 4/25/02 | Contact: Diana Smith, 719-389-6138  

COLORADO SPRINGS -- Kathryn Mohrman, Colorado College’s president since 1993, has received a Fulbright fellowship to spend the 2002-03 academic year in Hong Kong. She announced last fall that she would step down from the college presidency in summer 2002.

Mohrman will be Director of Research and Development for the Hong Kong-America Center, an entity sponsored by a consortium of five universities and based at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The center promotes “understanding of the Hong Kong society, culture and the arts by the general American community and of the American society, culture and the arts by the general Hong Kong community.” The 12-month appointment begins August 2002.

Unlike most Fulbright scholars who spend their fellowship year teaching or engaging in scholarly work full time, Mohrman’s position includes organizing seminars for Chinese faculty and students as well as the local community, supporting scholarly and student exchanges between Hong Kong and the United States, creating an American Studies certificate program for Hong Kong students, collaborating with the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on its Business Orientation Program, and raising money from local and multinational corporations to support the activities of the center. (For more about the center, see www.cuhk.edu.hk/hkac.)

“I also will teach a course in the fall semester in a new leadership program at Chinese University,” Mohrman said. “I consider it a real honor to be asked to teach in one of the university’s most visible and prestigious educational initiatives.”

In addition to her work as president of CC and previously as dean of undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, Mohrman has a long-standing interest in East Asia. On a Fulbright Fellowship in the summer of 1992, she studied the higher education systems in Korea and Japan. In fall 2000, Mohrman spent five months on sabbatical teaching in mainland China.

“It will be an interesting personal challenge,” Mohrman noted. “Those who know my fascination with Chinese culture can imagine my enthusiasm about this opportunity.”

Founded in 1874, Colorado College hopes to welcome Mohrman’s successor this summer or next fall. A trustee and campus search committee has been reviewing candidates for the last several months, and will be interviewing finalists on campus next week.