Study in the U.S.

TEA

The Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, and implemented by IREX, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization. TEA will provide 178 secondary school teachers from Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and the Pacific, the Near East, South and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Hemisphere with unique opportunities to develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills, and increase their knowledge about the United States. The international participants will travel to the United States in two cohorts of 88-90 teachers each in spring or fall 2013. Their program will include coursework and intensive training in teaching methodologies, lesson planning, and teaching strategies for the participants’ home environment, as well as the use of computers for Internet, word processing, and as teaching tools. The 6-week program will also include a forty-hour internship at a secondary school to actively engage participants with American teachers and students. Trips to U.S. cultural sites and academic support will be provided for participants throughout the program.

Eligible applicants must:

• Be secondary-level, full-time teachers with five or more years of classroom experience in either English as a Foreign Language, Social Studies, Math and Sciences;
• Be citizens or non-citizen residents of Latvia;
• Have proficiency in written and spoken English;
• Continue teaching for at least five years after completion of the program; and
• Have submitted a complete application.

Also, TEA will provide follow-on grants to the international teachers to purchase essential materials for their schools, to offer follow-on training for other teachers, and to conduct other activities that will build on their exchange experience.

The TEA fellowship is fully funded and provides:

• J-1 visa support
• A pre-departure orientation held in participant’s home country
• Round-trip airfare to and within the U.S.
• A Welcome Orientation in Washington, D.C.
• Academic program fees
• Housing (generally shared with other program fellows) and meals
• Accident and sickness coverage
• Transportation to the internship school (if necessary)
• A book/professional development allowance
• A Closing Seminar
• The opportunity to apply for follow-on grants.

The U.S. Embassy will hold interviews for candidates who are finalists during the third or fourth week of April.

Applications for the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program can be obtained on the right side of this page. For more info contact Ingrīda Bodniece at the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section, e-mail: Bodniecei@state.gov, tel: 6710 7209.