A proposal was submitted in October 2007 to the U.S. Department of Education for a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad in Summer 2008. A summary of this proposed project follows.
The ECHO group will spend four weeks in two East Central European countries: Hungary and Serbia. The group will learn about the history, culture, and education in this region in order to understand how forms of government and ethnic group features interact to affect peoples’ lives. Based on this experience and source materials collected, participants will develop curriculum modules for use in their schools and dissemination widely through the ECHO Web site.
The project includes the following activities abroad:
The project design is driven by the overall theme: Government and ethnicity—the interaction of ethnic groups and forms of government in East Central Europe. The focus will be on the period of communist rule and the changeover to democracy, with exploration of previous historical periods, as they constitute important antecedent events, features, and conditions. Twelve American educators will be chosen to participate.
From their time of selection, ECHO participants will take part in on-line preparation activities. Immediately prior to leaving for Europe, they will attend a two-day orientation workshop, probably in Philadelphia. Tentatively, departure for Budapest will be on June 26, 2008, with a planned return date of July 23, 2008.
The cost to participants will be $2,500, which includes airfare to Budapest and return, transportation within Europe, hotel accommodations, instructors, program materials, admission to resource sites, and some meals. Graduate credit will be available from Holy Family University. The estimated actual value of the ECHO 2008 program experience is approximately $15,000 per participant.
For more information, please see the full proposal or contact info@rbs.org.