Oct. 8, 2013 - King’s College has been awarded a $75,000 grant by the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program to fund a four-week group trip to Uganda next summer to study the East African’s nation’s models of education.

Margarita Rose, professor and chair of the economics department at King’s College, will serve as project director for the grant, which was one of only 16 awarded to United States colleges and universities.  Other Group Projects Abroad Program grant recipients include Georgia Tech, the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia and UCLA.

The grant will cover approximately 70 percent of the total cost of the program.  The vast majority of the remaining costs will be covered by nongovernmental sources, including King’s College institutional funds.

The project, titled “Learning from Ugandan Models of Education,” will be a short-term area studies and language seminar in Uganda.  Participants will include local K-12 teachers and school administrators, King’s faculty and staff, and King’s education majors who have not yet completed their student teaching.

“The parallels between the Ugandan educational system since the arrival of Universal Primary Education in 1997 and the educational environment in the United States, in which charter schools are mushrooming in every state, create a unique and fascinating opportunity for K-12 administrators, post-secondary educators and pre-service teachers to assess the costs and benefits of several models of education – public, private and religious,” Rose wrote in the grant application.

“Investment in education, particularly investment that develops environmental knowledge and entrepreneurial skill, is critical for Uganda’s overall national development.  As Northeastern Pennsylvania schools search for ways to provide quality education with fewer resources, they may find new ideas by engaging in collaborative exchanges with faculty and administrators in Uganda,” Rose added.

Project participants will be involved in three project phases, pre-travel departure preparation, the travel and field study abroad, and post-travel implementation, which will include an exhibit in the Widmann Gallery at King’s College of cultural and education items acquired while in Uganda, submissions for state and national teacher conferences, articles for professional publication or presentation opportunities within the educator’s home school district.

A Catholic College Sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Margarita Rose

Margarita Rose