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- John R. Stowe Cultural Immersion Grant
Who’s Eligible: Any current Georgia TESOL member in good standing
Purpose: This grant is intended to provide assistance for an immersion experience abroad for an educator who wishes to serve his or her students better by learning more about their culture and language through experiencing the culture firsthand. It is named in honor of our late colleague and Georgia TESOL member John Stowe who was constantly learning languages, traveling, and spending time with students in order to better understand their culture. John also firmly believed that a strong sense of place is a vital part of being truly immersed and connected to a community. Here are just a few examples of the many ways in which this grant could be used:
- An educator whose student population is predominantly Chinese and who has never visited China or learned the language could use the grant to visit the country, live with a host family, and enroll in a language program.
- An educator who teaches a largely Mexican population and who already speaks Spanish but has never visited Mexico could use the grant to tour the country and participate in a cultural exchange program.
- An educator who would like to take a graduate level class to become better prepared to teach his/her ELL population could use the grant to defray costs of participation in one of the many available study abroad courses that focus on language/culture/linguistics and have a cultural immersion component (UGA and Valdosta State offer such programs; there are many others available as well).
Amount: $2000
Criteria: Applications will be examined for evidence of (a) how the cultural immersion will further the applicant’s professional development, (b) how the experience gained will benefit the applicant’s ESL/EFL community, (c) implementation plan, (d) itemized budget (e) how the applicant will share what was learned with colleagues in Georgia TESOL.
Due Date: Applications for must be completed on or before December 30th of the year prior to the anticipated award year and notifications will be made in February of the award year (i.e., December 30, 2017 is the deadline for the 2018 award with notification in February 2018).
Review Committee: Three or more Members-at-Large of the Georgia TESOL Executive Board will conduct a blind review of all complete applications.
How to apply:
1) Complete the John R. Stowe Cultural Immersion Grant application.
2) Request one letter of recommendation. The recommendation letter must be submitted directly to the Grants and Awards Chair, Asha Jassani, at infogatesol@gmail.com
by the application due date. Subject line should read "Recommendation letter for X person for Stowe immersion grant".
Additional Comments:
- The grant will be offered on a yearly basis. However, the Review Committee may decide that no grant will be provided for a given year.
- The Review Committee may recommend to award the grant to 2 recipients. The recipient(s) will be notified by the end of February.
- A grantee may not reapply for at least three years.
- Applicants who do not receive the grant are encouraged to reapply next time.
Complete his or her travels no later than November 30th of the year of the award.
- Give a presentation related to the immersion experience at a Georgia TESOL conference and write an article related to the grant for the Georgia TESOL Newsletter .
Any questions regarding the grant can be directed to the Grants and Awards Committee Chairperson, Asha Jassani, at ethantrinhgatesol@gmail.com