Georgetown University will receive a multimillion dollar grant from the U.S. State Department in exchange for agreeing to administer a major overseas program for the department next year, university administrators announced yesterday.
Georgetown was selected to coordinate and implement the English Language Fellow Program during the 2006-07 academic year. It will receive $6.8 million from the State Department for the program, which sends approximately 120 English language specialists abroad each year to help train English students and teachers in nations worldwide.
The university will be responsible for recruiting and evaluating potential fellows, then training them before they depart for their 10-month assignments abroad. The fellows will then be placed in various foreign education ministries, universities and teacher-training schools, as part of their overall goal of fostering understanding between cultures.
“The program is closely related to Georgetown University’s goals of increasing understanding between the United States and other countries of the world [and] of increasing educational opportunities for foreign students,” said Chantal Santelices, the director of Georgetown’s Center for Intercultural Education and Development.
Santelices, who will direct the overall administration of the program, also said that the partnership would allow Georgetown to promote its interest in sending U.S. English as a Second Language graduates abroad.
“The first phase of the program is to recruit future EL Fellows throughout the United States,” she said. “During the second phase, Georgetown University will work with the United States State Department to propose ESL candidates to U.S. embassies throughout the world.”
Georgetown released a statement yesterday explaining that the university would use a network of six regional centers to advertise and recruit candidates for the fellowships nationwide. The university will also cooperate with the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities to recruit fellows, the statement said.
Christa Hansen, director of Georgetown’s Center for Language Education and Development, said that the program would be open to anyone with a master’s degree in English education and experience overseas, among other qualifications. Hansen said that CLED will be directly responsible for developing the academic components of the partnership, including recruiting and selecting potential fellows.
The fellows “are promoting public diplomacy via the vehicle of English language training,” Hansen said. “Our responsibility is to recruit the candidates for this position and to interview and create a roster of the best candidates for this position.”
Hansen said that CLED is currently developing Internet resources, applications and printed materials for potential applicants.
“We are working to get the recruitment process started immediately,” she said.
