SUNY Delhi Professor Named Fulbright Specialist

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Dr. Allen Wachter

DELHI, NY (12/06/2012)(readMedia)-- Associate Professor Allen Wachter has been selected as a Fulbright Specialist by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB).

As a Fulbright Specialist, Dr. Wachter will be matched with an overseas academic institution that has requested assistance via the Fulbright Commission or through U.S. embassies. Fulbright Specialists typically serve two to six weeks in projects that focus on strengthening and supporting the development needs of the host institutions.

Dr. Wachter is currently being considered for two projects in Sub-Sahara Africa. The first project is to develop a veterinary technician program at the University of Namibia. The second project is to teach large animal management to veterinary science students at Mekelle University in Ethiopia. The final project selection will be based on a review by Dr. Wachter's peers and by FSB.

"Teaching is a way I can give back to the profession, especially in countries such as Africa where their lives depend so much on the care of their animals," Dr. Wachter says. Dr. Wachter has prior experience working in Africa as a missionary in Zambia where he helped build an orphanage. "I came back to the U.S. with a sense that I needed to do more," he says, and that led him to pursue a Fulbright exchange.

Dr. Wachter says African nations "will go out of their way to welcome visiting faculty. The universities simply have no one to teach the courses."

The Fulbright Specialist Program promotes linkages between U.S. academics and professionals and their counterparts at host institutions overseas. The program is designed to award grants to qualified U.S. faculty and professionals in select disciplines, to engage in short-term collaborative two to six week projects at host institutions in over 100 countries worldwide. International travel costs and a stipend are funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating host institutions cover grantee in-country expenses or provide in-kind services.

Dr. Wachter serves as director of SUNY Delhi's bachelor's degree program in Veterinary Technology Management. He received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Cornell University in 1981. An associate professor of Veterinary Science Technology at SUNY Delhi, he continues to serve as a practicing veterinarian. In addition, he is an associate pastor at the Horton Brook Free Methodist Church in Roscoe. His mission trip to Zambia inspired him to write a children's book, Dance of the Bees.

SUNY Delhi's Veterinary Science Technology program is fully accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Hands-on instruction prepares Delhi graduates as technical personnel for a career in the biomedical and veterinary medical fields. The program's laboratory facilities are unmatched and feature the only two-year program with a campus primate colony. Internship opportunities with NASA, Rockefeller University and the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell have also helped distinguish Delhi's Veterinary Science Technology as one of the nation's preeminent programs.

For more information about SUNY Delhi's Veterinary Science Technology, visit www.delhi.edu.