The Leadership and Educational Action Resource Network: Binational Graduate Student Collaboration for Educational Improvement in Chile project (Project LEARN-Chile) announces 18 Ph.D. in Education students as recipients of the 100K Strong-Gabriela Mistral Scholars award for fall 2015.
Project LEARN-Chile provides an international research and learning opportunity for doctoral students in education at Texas State University in partnership with Universidad Alberto Hurtado, the Jesuit University of Chile. These 18 scholars will collaborate with Chilean doctoral students from Universidad Alberto Hurtado and Universidad Diego Portales to investigate multiple forms of public pedagogy in Chile through a national center for the arts, educational non-profit organizations, and citizens’ movements. For the scholars’ professional bios visit: http://projectlearn.wp.txstate.edu/gmistral-scholars/
In addition to funding provided by the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Grant, Project LEARN-Chile has developed a partnership with the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, Inc. The foundation is helping to organize events and a network in Chile to advance the scholars’ learning experiences abroad. In collaboration with the foundation, the project draws inspiration from the wisdom and life of Gabriela Mistral who was a Chilean teacher, poet, diplomat, and humanitarian. Mistral was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and, to date, is the only Latina to have done so.
This partnership with the Gabriela Mistral Foundation comes at an important moment. This year marks the 70th anniversary of her Nobel Prize award. “The Gabriela Mistral Foundation, Inc. is honored to collaborate in the 100K Strong-Gabriela Mistral Scholars project with Texas State University and all partners,” said Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, Director of the Gabriela Mistral Foundation. “This important initiative, under the leadership of Dr. Michael O’Malley and Tanya Long, highlights the importance that education and outreach have for all individuals and their great impact not only for the individual but in the community at large.”
100,000 Strong in the Americas is President Obama’s signature educational initiative for the Western Hemisphere. Through a competitive grant award, 100K Strong is funding the scholars’ travel to Chile in November 2015 for research fieldwork and learning, small group Spanish language lessons for scholars, and logistical support for an open conference in Chile.
Garafulich-Grabois notes that in 1922, with the poem Prayer to the Teacher, Mistral “became known in the United States and she then went on to have important roles in the educational systems of Mexico and other countries of the Americas. How appropriate that now ninety-three years later, doctoral students in the field of education will be able to know this woman from Chile, from the Americas and the world.”
For more information, including the scholars’ bios, visit: www.projectlearn.wp.txstate.edu
