Announcement: IFLE Awards Over $71 Million in FY 2017 Grants to Strengthen International Studies, World Language Training and Global Experiences for Educators and Students

The U.S. Department of Education awarded more than $71 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 new and non-competing continuation grants to help strengthen the capacity and performance of American education in world languages, world area and international studies, and research. The grant programs are under the Fulbright-Hays Act, also known at the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, and Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, and are administered by the International and Foreign Language Education office in the Office of Postsecondary Education.

“There has never been a more critical time to ensure that all our students are prepared for the challenges of an increasingly interconnected global economy”, said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “At the Department, we strive to help all students master the skills necessary to succeed in postsecondary education and in-demand careers. More and more, these careers involve working across cultures, in multinational organizations. The work our students will pursue – even some we can’t imagine yet -- will be increasingly technical and global in nature. We can and must prepare them for what lies ahead.….”

The Department aims to address the nation’s need by preparing leaders who are highly competent in world languages, international studies, and critical thinking skills to fill roles in national security and diplomacy, international business, and to be the educators to help America’s students achieve greater global competence. These grants support our students, teachers, faculty, administrators, and institutions of higher education as they engage in projects focused on international studies, world languages, cross-cultural understanding and research.

In addition to supporting foreign language and area studies instruction and research, Title VI and Fulbright-Hays grantees will use FY 2017 grant awards to create interdisciplinary curriculum projects, establish collaborations with minority-serving institutions and community colleges, and develop programs that expand global opportunities for K-16 educators. For example, Savannah State University, a historically black university (HBCU), in partnership with the Savannah Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS), will undertake a short-term Group Project Abroad (GPA-ST) in Ghana to expose a group of SCCPSS middle- and high-school teachers and SSU faculty members to the historically significant relationship that exists between Savannah, a major port city during the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, and the West Coast of Africa, the departure point for a large number of slaves. Through new courses and modules in existing courses, the project intends to make the social sciences more interesting and relevant to students at both the secondary and postsecondary levels.

Other GPA-ST projects bring together global studies and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. For example, the Global Teach Ag Consortium, comprising Pennsylvania State University, Hawkeye Community College, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, will carry out an innovative group study abroad project for U.S. pre-service and current agricultural educators at the secondary and postsecondary levels. The project aims to give globally-minded agricultural education teachers the opportunity to link content and practice through a short-term experience in a contextually relevant situation in Malaysia.

Seven GPA Long-Term (GPA-LT) projects will provide advanced intensive language and area studies training to US students and educators in Arabic (Morocco), Yoruba (Nigeria), Mandarin Chinese (China), Indonesian (Indonesia), Russian (Russia), Persian (Tajikistan), and Turkish (Turkey). For example, the “Siberia by Southwest” program administered by the University of Texas (UT) at Austin will provide 20 educators, undergraduates, and graduates at the third and fourth-year levels of language proficiency with ten weeks of advanced Russian-language and area studies training. Among qualified applicants, preference will be given to non- UT students and to students who are minorities, first-generation college students, or those attending Minority Serving Institutions.

Eight new research projects garnered International Research and Studies (IRS) grants, responding to one of two priorities: studies that help to understand the link between international education experiences and postsecondary outcomes, or studies that help to understand the features of effective Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs in pre-K-12 schools. Under the first priority, for example, the University of Georgia System will establish a national databank and “co-laboratory” for research on international education and college outcomes, to enable a “big-data” approach to understanding the impact of international education on college success. Addressing the DLI priority, the Center for Applied Linguistics will identify features of Dual-Language Immersion in high-achieving programs across the country by analyzing state-wide longitudinal data, while Delaware State University will study instructional practices, assessment, and proficiency development in Dual-Language Immersion programs from the state’s three counties.

The Department also awarded non-competing continuation (NCC) grants for Centers for International Business Education, Language Resource Centers, National Resource Centers for Foreign Language and Area/International Studies, American Overseas Research Centers, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, and Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language projects. Collectively these programs support an infrastructure to strengthen the U.S. capacity to teach and carry out research in foreign languages and world area and international area studies.

The list of FY 2017 new grantees and non-competing continuation grantees follows:

Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Short-Term Awards

State	Institution	Grant
AZ	Arizona State University	$93,252
AZ	University of Arizona	$88,263
CA	University of California- Berkeley	$96,073
CA	Mills College	$84,115
CO	Metropolitan State University of Denver	$92,416
FL	University of Central Florida	$91,795
GA	American Institute for Resource and Human Development	$87,315
GA	Savannah State University	$100,000
GA	University of Georgia	$86,810
MD	Johns Hopkins University	$82,945
MD	Towson University	$99,556
MI	University of Detroit- Mercy	$98,928
NC	Western Carolina University	$79,760
NJ	Rowan University	$74,089
NJ	William Patterson University	$99,078
NM	New Mexico Highlands University	$97,018
PA	Pennsylvania State University- University Park	$75,900
SC	Voorhees College	$99,605
TX	Richland College	$94,978
	Total	$1,721,896

Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Long-Term Awards

State	Institution	Grant
DC	American Councils for International Education	$219,755
DC	Howard University	$73,530
MA	Harvard College	$240,399
MA	University of Massachusetts- Boston	$248,925
NY	Cornell University	$90,516
PA	American Research Institute in Turkey	$120,000
TX	University of Texas- Austin	$197,418
	Total	$1,190,543

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad

State	Institution	Grant
AZ	University of Arizona	$90,440
CA	Stanford University	$30,768
CA	University of California, Berkeley	$157,336
CA	University of California, Los Angeles	$120,668
CA	University of California, Santa Cruz	$50,918
CA	University of California, San Diego	$88,455
CT	University of Connecticut	$36,326
CT	Yale University	$36,310
DC	Georgetown University	$95,315
FL	University of Florida	$13,100
IL	University of Chicago	$338,857
IL	University of Illinois	$44,722
IN	Indiana University	$156,744
IN	University of Notre Dame du Lac	$47,690
MA	Boston University	$35,767
MA	Clark University	$18,756
MA	Harvard University	$131,369
MD	Johns Hopkins University	$24,140
MI	Michigan State University	$43,247
MI	University of Michigan	$114,062
MO	Washington University	$33,708
NC	Duke University	$143,765
NC	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	$216,837
NJ	Princeton University	$142,792
NM	University of New Mexico	$18,752
NY	City University of New York	$82,542
NY	Columbia University	$129,938
NY	Cornell University	$50,637
NY	New York University	$81,941
NY	Syracuse University	$131,229
OH	Ohio State University	$25,359
PA	Pennsylvania State University	$65,967
PA	University of Pennsylvania	$112,468
RI	Brown University	$67,061
TX	Texas A&M University	$30,357
TX	University of North Texas	$60,296
VA	University of Virginia	$32,206
WA	University of Washington	$37,797
WI	University of Wisconsin	$163,976
	Total	$3,302,618

Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad

Seminar	Funding
Grades K-9 Educators to Thailand	$165,000
Grades 9-12 Educators to Bulgaria	$162,020
Postsecondary Educators to Chile	$205,280
Total	$532,300

Title VI International Research and Studies

State	Institution	Grant
DC	Center for Applied Linguistics	$84,612
DE	Delaware State University	$82,200
GA	University System of Georgia	$93,208
IA	Iowa State University	$95,395
NC	Diane Villwock, Independent Researcher, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$85,490
NY	Institute for International Education	$90,149
PA	Pennsylvania State University	$84,850
PA	University of Pittsburgh	$96,425
	Total	$712,329

Title VI Non-Competing Continuation Grants

Programs	Grant
(100) National Resource Centers (NRCs)	$22,743,107
(108) Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS)	$30,343,000
(17) Centers for International Business Education (CIBEs)	$4,571,400
(16) Language Research Centers (LRCs)	$2,746,768
(33) Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) projects	$2,862,833
(10) American Overseas Research Centers (AORC)	$543,266
Total	$63,810,374

TOTAL FOR ALL FULBRIGHT-HAYS AND TITLE VI AWARDS: $71,270,060

For more information, visit the Google Map of IFLE FY 2017 Grantees.