Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies Receives Nearly $84,000 From The Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Program

PITTSBURGH-The University of Pittsburgh's Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) recently received an $83,968 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) program. The grant will allow 13 social studies and art teachers from public and private secondary schools in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia to participate in a five-week seminar project in Brazil that will prepare the educators to teach Brazilian culture and society from a visual, literary, and performance arts perspective.

The seminar project, "Art and Society: Brazil/U.S. Educational Partnership," includes three phases-a pre-trip seminar, research trip to Brazil, and post-trip seminar. The pre-and post-trip seminars will be funded by CLAS and its program partner, The Andy Warhol Museum. The research-travel portion will be 95 percent funded by Fulbright-Hays, with 5 percent contribution from the participants.

The pre-trip seminar will include intensive Brazilian Portuguese language training-allowing the participants to interact with artists and Brazilian educators and develop interdisciplinary lessons that they will use in their social studies and art classrooms upon returning to the United States. During the post-trip seminar, participants will prepare to share their experiences and curriculum with other secondary educators nationwide.

For more information on the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Program, visit the U.S. Department of Education's Web site at www.ed.gov/programs/iegpsgpa/index.html.

###

4/9/09/tmw