Cassandra Pyle Recipients

The Cassandra Pyle Award for Leadership and Collaboration in International Educational Exchange honors the contributions of a senior international educator to global international exchange.

2009 Recipient - Caroline Yang

In 2009, Caroline Matano Yang received the distinguished Cassandra Pyle Award honoring her lifelong impact on the field of international education. Yang, a second generation Japanese-American from Hawaii, served on the presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Board of Foreign Scholarship for nine years, the last two as chair.

Previously, she was executive director of the Fulbright Program in Japan for more than 20 years. During her tenure, the Fulbright Program in Japan became bi-nationally funded, initiated new grants in international education and Pacific Basin studies, organized the alumni, and pioneered fundraising from the private sector.

Under Yang, the "Japan IEA" Program that has brought so many young international education professionals to Japan, and vice versa, began and grew to prominence. Yang fostered networks that made international exchange between the United States and Japan work, and she was never too busy to offer a word of encouragement or a good idea. She was a consummate fundraiser–every year a charity golf tournament in Japan attended by the Crown Prince raised huge sums for Fulbright scholarships.

One of Yang’s great achievements while with the Japan Fulbright Commission was persuading the Japan government in 1980 to start providing 50 percent of the funding. A few years later, she was instrumental, along with key Japanese Fulbright alumni, in initiating private sector funding for the Japan Fulbright Program.

Yang has provided guidance and support for the early groups of Japanese universities coming to the NAFSA annual conference, starting with a special orientation in 1990 and growing to a strong presence in the exhibit halls in later years. One of her biggest contributions was to work with Cassandra Pyle in initiating the Japan Special Interest Group. Yang is a member of NAFSA's New Century Circle.

Yang currently serves on the Mike Mansfield Fellowships to Japan Selection Committee, the International Studies Advisory Council of Hawaii Pacific University, the University of Hawaii Colleges of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, and the board of the Japan-American Society of Hawaii.

Previous Recipients

• Ward Chamberlin, American Field Service
• Dr. Christian Bode, German Academic Exchange Service - Read Dr. Bode's Acceptance Speech
• Dr. Humphrey Tonkin, University of Hartford
• Harriet Fulbright, Fulbright Program
• Alice Stone Ilchman, Jeannette K. Watson Fellowships
• Axel Markert, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen