Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg to Honor Composer Philip Glass at
2009 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal Event

            WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 6, 2009) – Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, a 2005 recipient of the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, will present the honor to fellow Fulbright alumnus Philip Glass at the 2009 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal Dinner on May 12 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.  Mr. Glass, poet Rita Dove, educator and civil rights activist John D. Maguire, and entrepreneur Ruth M. Owades will be recognized for their distinguished careers and their civic and cultural contributions.

            Ms. Ochoa-Brillembourg is president and CEO of Strategic Investment Group, a company she founded in 1987.  She serves on the Fulbright Association’s Board of Directors and is founding chairman of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington National Opera, a member of the advisory committee of the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, and vice chairman of the Group of Fifty (G-50) at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Ms. Ochoa-Brillembourg came from Venezuela on a Fulbright fellowship to study at Harvard University.

            “My Fulbright grant allowed me to pursue academic and professional dreams at a time when a woman in Venezuela would have had no other source of support for those dreams,” Ms. Ochoa-Brillembourg said.  “The grant transformed my horizons to such an extent that when I went back to Venezuela I proposed the government start a similar program for all deserving Venezuelans.  The government followed that advice and created the highly successful higher education funding program Fundación Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, which has supported more than 50,000 Venezuelans over 25 years.  Quite a successful seed to plant in any land!”

            The Fulbright Program is an international educational exchange initiative administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.  It was created in 1946 by legislation sponsored by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.  There are Fulbright exchanges between the United States and more than 150 other countries.  There are more than 275,000 Fulbright alumni throughout the world

            The Fulbright Association is a private, nonprofit organization of Fulbright alumni and friends committed to advancing international education and people-to-people diplomacy.  It has 46 chapters throughout the United States and collaborates with more than 70 sister Fulbright alumni organizations abroad.  The Fulbright Association inaugurated the biennial Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal Dinner in 2000 to recognize the important role Fulbright grantees have had in creating a better future for communities throughout the world.

            “The Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal has been my highest badge of honor,” Ms. Ochoa-Brillembourg said.  “It feels good to think that the Fulbright grant given to me more than 30 years ago, when I needed it most, has brought such a return for my community.  The medal made me feel for a moment that I had given back as much as, or more than, I had ever been given.  That is a good feeling, but the work continues.  This recognition has spurred my further contributions to the community and causes which have my greatest allegiance.”

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