SESP alumni Sabrina Ehmke (BS05) and Corey Winchester (BS10), both history and social sciences teachers at Evanston Township High School, were selected for a Fulbright-Hays international program this summer. They will travel to Bolivia and Peru.

Winchester and Ehmke will participate in a project entitled “Indigenous Voices at the Frontier of a Globalized World.” A number of Chicago-area high school teachers and college faculty members were selected for this project, which is being coordinated by Oakton Community College.

The U.S. Department of Education sponsors the Fulbright program with the goal of broadening access to international and foreign language education. The Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program provides grants to support short-term overseas projects in training, research, and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies for teachers, students and faculty.

Activities, observation and seminars in South America will enable the teachers to develop resources for further integrating international studies into their school’s curriculum.

“I would like to expand our Advanced Placement Psychology course’s curriculum on multicultural psychology, with a specific focus on individualistic and collectivist cultures,” says Ehmke. She sees the opportunity to incorporate activities on indigenous cultures and Latin American history, and for her students to connect with schools through cultural exchanges via Skype and email. She also envisions the opportunity for students to learn about environmental sustainability in a different part of the world.

The Fulbright-Hays program awarded 53 grants recently for international education programs, including new grants for Group Projects Abroad (GPA) Short-Term projects and Doctoral Dissertation Awards.

Photo: SESP secondary teaching graduates Corey Winchester and Sabrina Ehmke received Fulbright awards.
(Photo courtesy of Evanston Township High School Communications Office)