APPLICATION INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS
Summer Seminars for School Teachers are offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide sixteen NEH Summer Scholars with an opportunity to explore a topic or set of readings with an expert scholar. The core material of the project need not relate directly to the school curriculum; the principal goal is to engage teachers in the scholarly enterprise and to expand and deepen their understanding of the humanities through reading, discussion, writing, and reflection.
Prior to completing an application, please review this website and consider carefully what is expected by way of residence and attendance, reading and writing requirements, and general participation in the work of the seminar.
ELIGIBILITY
Full-time teachers in American K-12 schools, whether public, charter, independent, or religiously affiliated, as well as home-schooling parents, are eligible to apply to NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes. Americans teaching abroad are also eligible if a majority of the students they teach are American citizens. Librarians and school administrators may also be eligible.
You may request information about as many projects as you like, but you may apply to no more than two NEH Summer Programs (seminars, institutes, or Landmarks workshops) and you may attend only one. Please note that eligibility criteria differ significantly between NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes and NEH Landmarks Workshops. For more detailed eligibility requirements, please see www.neh.gov/projects/si-school.html.
Please note: Up to two seminar spaces are available for current graduate students, who intend to pursue careers in K-12 teaching.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must complete the NEH application cover sheet and all information requested below to be considered eligible. Please fill it out online as directed by the prompts. When you are finished, be sure to click on the “submit” button. Print out the cover sheet and add it to your application package. At this point you will be asked if you want to fill out a cover sheet for another project. If you do, follow the prompts and select another project and then print out the cover sheet for that project as well. Note that filling out a cover sheet is not the same as applying, so there is no penalty for changing your mind and filling out a cover sheet for several projects. Also, please note that while you may request information about many NEH Summer Seminars, you may apply to up to two projects and participate in only one. A completed application consists of the following items emailed as a .pdf file to: nehseminar@ucsc.edu. All letters of recommendation should be emailed by the recommender as a a .pdf file to: nehseminar@ucsc.edu. All parts of the application are due by 5pm on March 1, 2011.
Successful applicants will be notified of their selection on Friday, April 1, 2011, and they will have until Tuesday, April 5, 2011 to accept or decline the offer. Applicants who will not be home during the notification period should provide an address and phone number where they can be reached. No information concerning the status of an application will be available prior to the official notification period.
SELECTION PROCESS
Participants will be selected by a three-person committee, consisting of the project director, a UCSC world history faculty colleague, and a high school teacher of world history. Members of the committee will read and evaluate each application.
We will be especially interested in selecting teachers who can show a commitment to improving their own teaching and to developing the teaching of world history. We will strive to assemble a group that includes a broad diversity in backgrounds and interests. Teachers with backgrounds in US, European and World history, as well as art history, economic history and related disciplines are especially urged to apply.
RESUME
Please include a résumé or brief biography detailing your educational qualifications and professional experience.
THE APPLICATION ESSAY
The most important part of the application is your essay. It should include your reasons for applying to the specific project; your relevant personal and academic information; your qualifications to do the work of the project and make contributions to it; what you hope to accomplish by participation; and the relation of the study to your teaching.
The application essay should be no more than four double-spaced pages. It should address reasons for applying; the applicant’s interest, both academic and personal, in the subject to be studied; qualifications and experiences that equip the applicant to do the work of the seminar and to make a contribution to a learning community; a statement of what the applicant wants to accomplish by participating; and the relation of the project to the applicant’s professional responsibilities.
REFERENCE LETTERS
The two referees may be from inside or outside the applicant’s home institution. They should be familiar with the applicant’s professional accomplishments or promise, teaching and/or research interests, and ability to contribute to and benefit from participation in the seminar. Referees should be provided with the director’s description of the seminar and the applicant’s essay. Applicants who are current graduate students should secure a letter from a professor or advisor. Please ask your referees to sign across the seal on the back of the envelope containing the letter. Enclose the letters with your application.
STIPEND, TENURE, AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD
Participants in the four-week seminar are awarded a $3,300 stipend, which is meant to cover travel to and from the project location, housing and food costs during the seminar. The full stipend will be paid to you when you arrive. In order to be eligible for the full amount of the stipend participants must attend all required events and activities. In accordance with NEH rules, participants who do not attend the entire seminar will be required to return a pro-rata amount of their stipend.
Seminar and institute participants are required to attend all meetings and to engage fully in the work of the project. During the project’s tenure, they may not undertake teaching assignments or any other professional activities unrelated to their participation in the project.
At the end of the project’s residential period, participants will be asked to submit online evaluations in which they review their work during the summer and assess its value to their personal and professional development. These evaluations will become part of the project’s grant file and may become part of an application to repeat the seminar or institute.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. For further information about NEH’s EEO policy, write to the Equal Opportunity Officer, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. TDD (for the hearing impaired only): (202) 606-8282.
