Overview:
Eric Wirth of Athol, director of global partnerships at UMass Amherst, has been selected for a Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Award. This fall, Wirth will travel to Delhi, Pune, and Hyderabad to study India's rapidly growing higher education system.
ATHOL – Eric Wirth has been selected for a Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Award, earning the chance to travel to India this fall through the Fullbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange initiative.
According to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, the award is a two-week seminar for U.S. higher education administrators that provides insight into India’s higher education system and opportunities for collaboration and exchange between institutions in the United States and India.
Wirth, of Athol, serves as director of global partnerships in the Office of Global Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he oversees partnerships with institutions around the world.
Before joining UMass Amherst, Wirth spent 15 years at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he most recently served as associate vice president for enrollment services. He holds a master’s in Hispanic language, literature, and linguistics from UMass Amherst and is pursuing a doctorate in applied linguistics at UMass Boston.
Wirth said he was thrilled and honored to be selected for the fellowship.
According to Wirth’s Fulbright award notification, the program’s alumni include heads of state, ambassadors, university presidents, Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer Prize winners.
“It’s just really flattering because of the company that you’re in when you get this type of award,” Wirth said.
As part of the fellowship, Wirth will travel to Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad in India, where he will visit universities, meet with higher education leaders and learn firsthand about India’s rapidly evolving higher education system. Although he has worked with organizations in India throughout his career, this will be his first visit to the country.
“It’s just fascinating. There’s so many new universities popping up in India,” he said.
Wirth noted that India would need to build an estimated 13 universities a week through 2040 to meet the country’s higher education needs.
“India definitely represents an opportunity to engage with a huge global player in higher education and in research,” he said.
Wirth hopes to return with a better understanding of India’s higher education system to help UMass Amherst strengthen existing collaborations and develop new partnerships with universities in India.
Wirth said his interest in international education began very close to home. As a high school student, He met longtime Athol residents and educators Bonnie and Al Benjamin through the Athol Congregational Church. The couple regularly hosted exchange students, and Wirth said getting to know them sparked his interest in international education.
Later, when Wirth wanted to study abroad, one of the Benjamins’ exchange students connected him with a host family in Spain, where he spent a year.
“That just totally kicked off my love of everything international,” Wirth said.
After returning home, Wirth said his family hosted an exchange student of their own. He also credited Alyssa Freden, who studied in Germany the year before him, with “blazing that trail” and showing him it was possible to study abroad without repeating his junior year.
He said Athol High School Spanish teacher Ed Davidson and his eighth grade Spanish teacher, Maria Pieropan, influenced his interest in learning languages.
“I am who I am today because of the community that embraced me in Athol,” Wirth said.
Wirth encouraged students to get to know exchange students, remain curious about other cultures and take advantage of opportunities to study abroad whenever possible.
“If you have the world in your sights, there are ways to make it happen, even if you think that you’re from somewhere small,” he said.