NEW YORK, January 15, 2013—The Institute of International Education is pleased to announce a new Brazil English Teachers Program, which will bring 1,080 teachers per year to the United States for at least three years for intensive English language and teacher training. The inaugural group of 540 high school English teachers from Brazil arrived in the United States this month to begin a six week professional development program, and the second group of teachers from Brazil is scheduled to arrive in the United States in July 2013.
The program is a collaboration among IIE and Brazilian sponsor CAPES, a foundation within the Ministry of Education in Brazil whose purpose is to improve the quality of Brazil’s faculty and staff in higher education through grant programs, the Fulbright Commission in Brazil, and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil.
Working with the Fulbright Commission in Brazil, CAPES selected the first group of 540 teachers, hailing from all states in Brazil, from among 1,500 applicants. IIE designed the professional development program and invited more than 100 Intensive English Language programs across the United States to submit a competitive proposal to become a host institution.
The first group of teachers will study at IEPs at 18 U.S. universities in 15 states. The U.S. institutions that are hosting the teachers in January-February 2013 are: Drexel University, Illinois State University, Iowa State University, Miami Dade College, Missouri State University, Ohio University, Southern Illinois University, St. Johns University New York, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Delaware, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Kansas, University of Missouri Kansas City, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and University of Texas at Austin.
IIE President Allan E. Goodman noted that this program is part of a broader context of increased educational cooperation between the U.S. and Brazil. “At a time when Brazil’s economy is expanding rapidly, and Brazil and the United States are forging unprecedented ties in trade, energy and scientific development, we look to higher education as another area where our two countries should seek much stronger cooperation. This new teacher training program will not only benefit teachers and students in Brazil, but will also help to build the pipeline for more exchanges in future years.”
The Government of Brazil’s Ciencia sem Fronteiras initiative has heralded an unprecedented new phase in U.S.- Brazil educational exchange, with the goal of sending 75,000 fully funded Brazilian students abroad (worldwide) for training in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with an additional 26,000 scholarships to be funded by the private sector. By fall 2012, about 2,000 students were enrolled at more than 230 universities in the United States under the U.S. undergraduate component, the Brazil Scientific Mobility Undergraduate Program, and the program is projected to enroll 2,500 students per academic year in U.S. universities for five years.
On the U.S. side, the 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative seeks to dramatically expand student and faculty exchange. The U.S. Department of State has expanded the Fulbright and other programs with Brazil, and IIE and EducationUSA will hold a new series of U.S. university fairs in Sao Paulo, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro this April to help universities connect with Brazilian STEM students. In addition, more than 30 U.S. campuses have participated in IIE’s International Academic Partnership Program with Brazil to date, and IIE will lead a delegation of 14 universities to Brazil in May 2013 to learn about the Brazilian higher education system and meet with policymakers and potential partner campuses.
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