USF Nursing Faculty Dr. Sandra Cadena Receives the USF Fulbright Scholar Award

Sandra J. Cadena, PhD, ARNP, CS, CNE, Assistant Professor and Coordinator for Latin American Student Experiences at University of South Florida College of Nursing, received the USF Fulbright Scholar Award at a celebration breakfast during the International Education Week on November 2, 2012.

Dr. Cadena was honored with the Fulbright Scholar medal for her tremendous work she has done in Colombia, South America as a Fulbright Scholar. She was selected a Fulbright Scholar in 2008, and was assigned to complete two projects in Colombia, and remained in the Fulbright roster for five years.

Her first project was in Bogota, Colombia in 2009, where she served as a Senior Scholar placed at the School of Nursing at the Universidad El Bosque. In summer 2012, she traveled to Bucaramanga, Colombia to complete her second Fulbright Scholar project to work at the Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga (UNAB). While in Bucaramanga, she focused on projects including curriculum review in preparation for national accreditation, instruction, lectures, seminars and clinical experiences with all eight semesters of nursing students with a focus on international nursing and nursing English language enhancement. She also conducted lectures, workshops, and seminars with faculty from the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine and Psychology on the establishment and sustainability of international programs that integrate faculty development for investigations, teaching and scholarly activities.

(L to R) Karen Holbrook, USF Nursing’s Dr. Sandra Cadena, USF Nursing Professor, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board member Betty Castor, and USF President, Dr. Judy Genshaft at the USF Fulbright Scholar celebration breakfast

“Being a Fulbright Scholar is a dream come true and a highlight of my career,” said Dr. Cadena in a USF Nursing article published in July 2012. “I have always admired those academic colleagues selected from thousands of applicants to qualify for the prestige of being a ‘Fulbrighter.’ This opportunity and privilege to travel abroad and work collaboratively with other faculty and health professionals, is a humbling and exciting experience.”

The Fulbright program provides opportunities to strengthen faculty and students’ global reach by offering a cross-cultural perspective. USF scholars represent USF on an international level as ambassadors and return with a wealth of experience that they can bring to the classroom.

The Fulbright Specialists Program was created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, to provide short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post-secondary, academic institutions around the world. Dr. Cadena is one of the few nursing academicians to ever be awarded a Fulbright Specialist Scholar.