UMaine hosting two Foreign Language Teaching Assistants
For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Maine is hosting two Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, one in Mandarin Chinese and the other in Arabic.
Ming-Tso Chien of Taiwan and Yahya Mahmoud Elsayed of Egypt have been awarded Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program grants to serve as teaching assistants in Mandarin and Arabic, respectively, and take courses at UMaine for the 2015–16 academic year.
While in the United States, Chien and Elsayed will share their language and culture with communities to inspire Americans to travel and study overseas, and make U.S. citizens better prepared to engage with businesses, governments and organizations abroad.
Chien and Elsayed are two of more than 400 educators from 50 countries who will travel to the United States in the 2015–16 academic year through the Fulbright FLTA Program to help internationalize U.S. colleges and universities. Recipients of Fulbright FLTA grants are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential. Fulbright FLTA scholarships are awarded by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
In the coming year, grant recipients from around the world will contribute to U.S. students’ foreign language acquisition in more than 30 languages at over 200 U.S. institutions. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. State Department. Participating governments, universities, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.
For more information about the Fulbright FLTA Program, visit the website.