Introduction

The Teach for Friendship Foundation (TFF) announces PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS intended to help TESL/TEFL graduate students or new educators participate in a teaching program at a leading university in Wuhan, China. The program provides intensive conversational English classes for three weeks each July.

Designed to help new and future TESL/TEFL teachers gain experience in the classroom, these grants will provide up to $1500 per selected teacher for expenses. Accommodations and a stipend are provided by the host institution.


Teach for Friendship Foundation, www.teachforfriendship.org, was created in 2002 in response to requests from Chinese educational institutions for native English speakers to help strengthen their students’ ability to speak English, and to build bridges of friendship between China and the United States. TFF is a nonprofit organization based in Tucson, Arizona.

Since its creation, TFF and its teachers have successfully engaged thousands of students in China and elsewhere in oral-English programs. Our programs focus not only on helping students speak English more clearly and confidently, but also on cultural exchange between teachers and students.

Application Procedure

Fill out the online Grant Application Form below. Only online applications will be accepted. If you do not have a valid passport,leave that section blank. However, you must have a valid passport as of April 1, 2010 in order to participate in the 2010 program.

The online grant application contains in addition to asking for your name, and other basic information, the online application has two important fields (spaces to fill in information);

2) In the first field, please write us a cover letter.
In this letter applicants should make a compelling case as to why this particular opportunity is of interest to you, how it will have a substantial impact on your professional goals, and what contributions you feel you can make to the mission of the TFF programs and the students abroad.

3) In the second field, we would like a current resume.

(Note: Rather than retype your resume, you may copy it from an existing computer file and paste it into the resume field. Also you could do the same thing for the cover letter field if you’d prefer to take your time and compose it off-line.)

4) If chosen to be a finalist, you must be available for an interview by the TFF selection committee in Tucson. Interviews will take place in February.

5) If you are awarded a grant, you will be required to:

Submit a summary of your experience in writing to TFF within one month of the end of your teaching experience.

Share your experiences with future teachers at TFF training sessions the following spring, and/or make written suggestions for additions to the TFF Teacher Resource Guide.

Application Schedule / Grant Amount / Eligibility

APPLICATION and NOTIFICATION SCHEDULE for 2010:
The online application deadline is February 5.
Notification of finalists the first week in March.
Finalist interviews in March/April.
Notification of award by April 1.
Tentative teaching dates in China: July 5-23


GRANT AMOUNT
A one-time award of up to $1500 to offset expenses for the 3-week summer conversational English program at Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST), one of China’s leading universities, in Wuhan, China. Wuhan is a large and increasingly important city located approximately 400 miles west of Shanghai on the Yangtze River. You will live and have classes on HUST’s lovely campus, about thirty minutes from downtown Wuhan.

ELIGIBILITY
Applicants must have a BA or BS undergraduate degree.
Applicants must be currently enrolled in a TESL or TEFL graduate program or be actively teaching ESL or EFL.
All applicants must be native English speakers.

IF FOR ANY REASON, TEACH FOR FRIENDSHIP FOUNDATION (TFF) AND/OR HUAZHONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CANCELS ITS 2010 SUMMER PROGRAMS, ANY GRANT MADE OR TO BE MADE UNDER THIS PROGRAM WILL THEREBY BECOME NULL AND VOID, AND ANY FUNDS RECEIVED BY GRANTEES MUST BE RETURNED TO TFF UPON NOTIFICATION OF THE CANCELLATION.

When entering information into the form please be sure to use the form's scroll bar to see all of the fields. The "SUBMIT" button is at the very bottom of the form.

Please click HERE to access the form. It will appear in an new window.