SABATTUS – Ann M. Cook will depart for Tokyo, in June as a participant in the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program.
Cook, a Sabattus Elementary School teacher, was selected from a national pool of more than 2,500 applicants by a panel of educators. The program allows distinguished primary and secondary school teachers in the U.S. to travel to Japan for three weeks in an effort to promote greater intercultural understanding between the two nations.
The educators will begin their visit in Tokyo, where they will receive a practical orientation on Japanese life and culture and meet Japanese government officials and educators.
They then will travel in groups of 20 to prefectures (states) outside of Tokyo where they will have direct contact with Japanese teachers and students during visits to primary and secondary schools as well as a teachers’ college. They also will visit cultural sites and local industries in addition to a homestay with a Japanese family.
The program is sponsored by the government of Japan and was launched to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. government Fulbright Program, which has enabled more than 6,000 Japanese citizens to study in the U.S. on Fulbright fellowships for graduate education and research.
Six hundred teachers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will visit Japan in June, October and November. The program is administered by the Japan-United States Educational Commission. The Institute of International Education, the nation’s largest nonprofit educational and cultural exchange agency, serves as the contracting agency for coordinating activities in the United States. For more information, call 1-888-527-2636.
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