When Congress reauthorized the Higher Education Act of 1965, by way of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, it directed the U.S. Department of Education to assist grantees in developing a survey to administer to students who have completed programs authorized by Title VI of the HEA to determine postgraduate employment, education, or training. The International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) Office of the Department of Education has conducted a survey tracking the post-graduation career trajectory of Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship recipients from 2010 to 2014. Subsequent surveys will continue to track this cohort in addition to new FLAS graduates.

The FLAS fellowship program provides academic year and summer fellowships to institutions of higher education. These fellowships assist meritorious undergraduate and graduate students undergoing training in modern foreign languages and related area/international studies. The goal of the program is to get students to advanced proficiency levels in a less commonly taught language in order to provide a cadre of language and area studies experts to government agencies, the private sector, and academia.

This FLAS tracking survey report details the results of the second biennial study of FLAS graduates. Through this survey, FLAS graduates gave feedback on positive FLAS experiences accompanied by gains in language proficiency and relevant experience for the careers they have entered.

• Title VI Centers for International Business Education (CIBE) Program
  The CIBE program provides funding to U.S. institutions of higher education for curriculum development, research, and training on issues of importance to U.S. trade and competitiveness. Funded centers provide instruction in critical foreign languages and international fields to improve understanding of the cultures of countries that trade with the United States.
  Deadline to submit applications: June 13, 2018
  Click here for CIBE Applicant Information
  
  
• Title VI Language Resource Centers (LRC) Program 
  The LRC Program provides grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) or consortia of IHEs for establishing, strengthening, and operating centers that serve as resources for improving the nation's capacity for teaching and learning foreign languages. Funded centers provide teacher training and conduct research, materials development, assessment, and dissemination projects.
  Deadline to submit applications: June 25, 2018
  Click here for LRC Applicant Information
  
  
• Title VI National Resource Centers Program (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) Program
  The NRC Program provides grants to IHEs or consortia of IHEs to establish, strengthen, and operate centers that will be national resources for teaching, training, and research in modern foreign languages, area studies, and international studies. The FLAS Program provides allocations of fellowships to IHEs to assist meritorious students in acquiring modern foreign language training in combination with area studies or international studies.
  Deadline to submit applications: June 25, 2018
  Click here for NRC and FLAS Applicant Information
  
  
• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program 
  The DDRA program provides opportunities to doctoral candidates to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. The program is designed to deepen research knowledge and increase the study of modern foreign languages, cultural engagement, and area studies not generally included in U.S. curricula.
  Deadline to submit applications: July 2, 2018. 
  Click here for DDRA Applicant Information
  
  
• Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) Program 
  The GPA program provides grants for overseas projects in training, research, and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies by teachers, students, and faculty engaged in a common endeavor. Programs are designed to help integrate international studies and culture into an institution's or school system's general curriculum, to acquire resource materials for curriculum development and dissemination in the U.S., or to conduct group research or study projects abroad.
  Deadline to submit applications: July 5, 2018
  Click here for GPA Applicant Information
  
  
• Title VI Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) Program
  The UISFL program provides grants to IHEs, consortia of IHEs, partnerships between nonprofit education organizations and institutions of higher education, and public and private nonprofit agencies and organizations, including professional and scholarly associations, to strengthen and improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages.
  Deadline to submit applications: July 26, 2018
  Click here for UISFL Applicant Information

he International Business Case Competition is a project of the Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Consortium, hosted by Georgia State University's Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER) and sponsored by CIBERs at Brigham Young University, George Washington University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, Temple University, Texas A&M University, University of Colorado-Denver, University of Maryland, University of Miami, and the University of Texas Austin. The annual competition is partially funded by grantees under the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI Centers for International Business Education program.

The International Business Case Competition is one of the signature activities offered as part of the MSI Consortium. In this annual event, students from different U.S. colleges and universities are placed in teams to solve a real-world business problem. The experience simulates a true work scenario in which individuals are asked to solve problems with team members they may not know. This year's competition brought together 28 students on March 8–9, 2018, from seven universities: Alabama A&M University, Claflin University, Georgia State University, Harris-Stowe State University, Johnson C. Smith University, Morehouse College, and Xavier University. 

The 2018 business case focused on Netflix and specifically, the business model Netflix used to appeal to Indian consumers. The business case challenged students to consider the cultural, socioeconomic, and language factors influencing the streaming entertainment market, as well as the business models of Netflix's competitors. Student teams spent the first evening preparing their business case solutions to present to a panel of judges the next morning. The panel of judges included local business executives and international business professors. The top three teams received cash awards.

According to a survey of students and faculty advisors who participated in the event, 96 percent of participants found the experience to be helpful to their professional development and 91 percent would recommend others to participate in the event next year.

See photos from the case competition HERE.

The development of a new curriculum incorporating Ethiopia — adaptable to students in kindergarten through high school — grew from a simple yet expansive idea.

“We came in with the question: What kinds of folklife do Ethiopians value today?” said Maureen Porter (left), associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education Social and Comparative Analysis in Education Program (SCAE).

Porter is the project manager for Ethiopia: Indigenous Wisdom & Culture, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's African Studies Program and the Institute for International Studies in Education. The project was funded through a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant. 

American educators traveled to Ethiopia for four weeks during the summer of 2017 and worked directly with Ethiopian educators to build curricula. Their ethnographic research involved visiting artists at work, interviewing entrepreneurs and religious leaders, and experiencing Ethiopian culture and traditions. The resulting lesson plans are now online and can be adapted to any learning environment.

Earlier this year, 130 Fulbright grant recipients working in South and Southeast Asia shared their research over three days of presentations and performances at the South and Central Asia Fulbright Mid-Year Conference in New Delhi, India. Five of the U.S. Department of Education's 89 Fiscal Year 2017 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) program fellows were able to attend the conference for scholars focused on the South and Central Asia region. 

DDRA fellows Naomi Worth, Kashi Gomez, Thalia Gigerenzer, Hardeep Dhillon, and Ryan Stock (right) presented their research to the larger community during the conference, taking full advantage of this opportunity to connect with colleagues from a wide variety of disciplines of study, including South Asian culture, history, climate science, politics, and economics. The fellows reported that the conference renewed their sense of pride in belonging to this creative and productive community of scholars.

Conference highlights included the following:

• University of Minnesota Emeritus Professor Frederick Asher speaking to senior scholars on broadening scopes of research and thinking about interconnected systems on a larger scale. For example, as an art historian, Asher's research traces Chinese ceramics across a large swath of South and Southeast Asia to examine why Buddhism spread south and east from India but not to the west.
• Emma Hartman, who recently completed her undergraduate degree at Amherst College, presented on the details of long-term preservation of physical objects, such as manuscripts written on acid paper or palm leaves, an issue of major importance in India, home to many libraries filled with crumbling ancient texts.
• Gopal Krishna Gandhi, grandson of Indian Independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, gave a compelling keynote address in which he spoke on the mutual influences and benefits of the friendly alliance between India and the United States.
  
  

To learn more about the research locations and topics of the U.S. Department of Education's current DDRA fellows, please visit our Google map of FY 2017 IFLE Grantees (click on the light blue airplane icon to find information about DDRA fellows abroad and their home institutions in the U.S.).

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. IES has established 13 programs of research (topics) under its Education Research Grants Program (CFDA Number: 84.305A). Each of these topics accepts applications once per year. 

For FY 2019, IES is accepting applications focused on foreign language education as a special topic. The foreign language special topic supports research that examines how best to support English-speaking students who are learning a foreign language in K–12 settings, and how proficiency in two or more languages is linked to student education outcomes. IES is interested in research on foreign languages, including but not limited to the following:

• Exploration of the relationship between foreign language learning and other academic outcomes (e.g., reading or math), cognitive functions (e.g., cognitive flexibility), or social and behavioral competencies (e.g., cultural competency, empathy, or self-efficacy)
• Development and testing of interventions to support teaching and learning of and in foreign languages, including instructional materials, curricula, and professional development for use in bilingual and dual-language immersion (DLI) programs
• Development and validation of assessments of foreign language proficiency, multilingualism, and other aspects of foreign language learning and instruction
• Studies of the efficacy or effectiveness of foreign language learning programs and policies (including DLI), especially as they impact academic outcomes, such as reading, writing, and STEM
  
  

More information about the Education Research Grants competition is available in the Request for Applications (RFA).

Program officers Molly Faulkner-Bond (Molly.Faulkner-Bond@ed.gov) and Rebecca Kang McGill-Wilkinson (Rebecca.McGill@ed.gov) are available to provide technical assistance throughout the application process. 

There are 16 federally funded Title VI Language Resource Centers (LRCs) at universities across the United States that work to support the nation’s capacity for language teaching and learning. The LRCs offer free or low-cost teaching materials, professional development opportunities, assessment and evaluation services, and much more. To learn more about what the LRCs have to offer, download the joint LRC brochure.

The LRCs offer a range of professional development opportunities for language teachers during the summer as well as throughout the year.

To find out more about the LRC summer institutes and other programs, see the Events section of the joint LRC website at the link below.

Research made possible, in part, by a 2006–09 Title VI International Research and Studies (IRS) grant is cited in a new book, Seeing the World: How US Universities Make Knowledge in the Global Era, recently released by Princeton University Press. The book discusses how U.S. institutions of higher education are maintaining international programming and initiatives and adapting to the transitions taking place on U.S. university campuses with regard to international and regional studies. It also addresses the implications of these changes on the area-studies model of international education. The book includes an occupational study of scholarly disciplines, an essay on the formal organization of knowledge, and an inquiry into the fate of area studies in a global era.

For more detailed information about the book and how to obtain a copy, please visit the link below.

IFLE is on Twitter with the latest from the world of international and foreign language education. Follow us @GoGlobalED and tell your friends! We'll see you in the Twittersphere!

We're on YouTube with informative webinars and exciting grant program videos. Subscribe to IFLE's YouTube channel to enjoy the latest content!

Have you received a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship or participated in a Fulbright-Hays grant program? Join our alumni groups on LinkedIn!

FLAS Program Alumni          Fulbright-Hays Program Alumni

We seek motivated students who are anxious to learn and work as part of our team as an unpaid full- or part-time intern during the summer, fall, and/or spring. Visit our website for more information.

We want to hear from you! Do you have suggestions for webinar topics? Ideas for things to include in future newsletters? Send them to Carolyn Collins at carolyn.collins@ed.gov.