John R. Stowe Cultural Immersion Grant

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).