The San Francisco Fulbright Enrichment Seminar is one of seven enrichment seminars hosted by the United States Department of State benefiting first-year Fulbright graduate students from abroad and a limited number of U.S. Fulbright alumni. These seminars are an integral part of the overall Fulbright experience and are designed to support the Fulbright Program objective of promoting mutual understanding between people of the U.S. and the people of Fulbright partner countries. Mutual respect and understanding are vitally important as we all work to reach peaceful solutions to conflict.

The seminars help achieve Fulbright objectives by focusing on critical issues in U.S. society which also have resonance in other countries. The seminars are designed to provide exposure to the diversity of viewpoints in the United States, and to promote discussion and dialogue among the seminar participants.

The San Francisco Seminar provides an outstanding opportunity for Fulbright students studying at universities across the United States to gather together and learn more about life in the U.S., as well as each student's unique Fulbright experience.

The focus of the 2003 San Francisco Fulbright Enrichment Seminar was "Technology and Communications in a New Global Age." We chose as our guiding principle, as stated by Charles Kettering, that "We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there." The Seminar explored ways in which technology and communications can both expand and challenge fundamental principles and cultural values such as public access, privacy, the capacity to create and compete, intellectual property, security, civic engagement and behavior, and educational opportunity. Fulbrighters discussed the impact that technology and communications have had on these issues in terms of cultural, social and individual country concerns and needs.

The U.S. Congress established the Fulbright Program in 1946, following the late Senator J. William Fulbright's proposal to fund educational exchanges. The primary source of funding is an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress, with significant funding also provided by partner governments and other organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

The Program is administered by the U.S. Department of State under policy guidelines established by a Presidentially-appointed 12 member board known as the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Fifty Binational Commissions, composed of equal members of U.S. and partner country citizens, supervise the Program in foreign countries. In countries without a Binational Commission, the Fulbright Program is administered by the U.S. Embassy, in partnership with the host country government. The Institute of International Education and other private not-for-profit organizations assist in the administration of the Fulbright Program.