The United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently that Paul Monheimer, 7th grade history teacher at Catlin Gabel, has been awarded a Distinguished Fulbright Award in Teaching to conduct research in Israel.

Monheimer will spend the spring semester researching how to create meaningful virtual exchanges that use graphic software to overcome language barriers. He will work with Israeli teachers, teacher colleges, and students.

Monheimer is currently attending orientation for the program in Washington, DC. "In the past 24 hours, I have spent time with some amazing teachers from Singapore, South Africa, Israel, and Argentina," he reports. "How can we enable teachers and students to communicate regularly with one another across the globe? There is no substitute for actually travelling in a country, but today's technology ought to allow folks to come pretty close."

The new Distinguished Fulbright Awards in Teaching will send 13 U.S. teachers abroad and bring 13 international teachers to the U.S. for a semester to pursue capstone projects, conduct research, take courses for professional development, and lead master classes or seminars for teachers and students. The program is open to teachers from Argentina, India, Israel, Finland, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 294,000 people – 111,000 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 183,000 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States – with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic, educational, and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants. The program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.