GUIDELINES FOR NEH

Eligibilty - Selection Criteria - Stipend, Tenure & Conditions of Award - Equal Opportunity

Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers are offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide teachers an opportunity for substantive study of significant humanities ideas and texts. These study opportunities are especially designed for this program and are not intended to duplicate courses normally offered by graduate programs. On completion of a seminar or institute, participants will receive a certificate indicating their participation. Prior to completing an application, please review the enclosed letter from the project director (or letter downloaded from the director’s website, if available) and consider carefully what is expected in terms of residence and attendance, reading and writing requirements, and general participation in the work of the project.

An NEH institute for school teachers, such as this one, is typically led by a team of core faculty and visiting scholars and is designed to present the best available scholarship on important humanities issues and works taught in the nation's schools. The 30 participating teachers compare and synthesize the various perspectives offered by the faculty, make connections between the institute content and classroom applications, and often develop improved teaching materials for their classrooms.

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ELIGIBILITY

Our institute is designed for full-time teachers (grades 6-12) of history and social studies including home-schooling parents. High school teachers of Spanish will also be considered if they incorporate cultural and historical material in the teaching of language. Substitute teachers or part-time personnel are not eligible. Applications from teachers in public, private, and religiously-affiliated schools receive equal consideration.

Teachers at schools in the United States or its territorial possessions or Americans teaching in foreign schools where at least 50 percent of the students are American nationals are eligible for this program. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching outside the U.S. are not eligible to apply.

Applicants must complete the NEH application cover sheet and provide all the information requested below to be considered eligible. Individuals may not apply to study with a director of a seminar or institute who is a current colleague or a family member. Individuals must not apply to seminars directed by scholars with whom they have previously studied. Institute selection committees are advised that only under the most compelling and exceptional circumstances may an individual participate in an institute with a director or a lead faculty member who has previously guided that individual’s research or in whose previous institute or seminar he or she has participated. An individual may apply to only one project in any one year. Anyone found to have applied to more than one project will be ineligible to participate in any seminar or institute that year.

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SELECTION CRITERIA

A selection committee reads and evaluates all properly completed applications in order to select the most promising applicants and to identify a small number of alternates. Our Institute selection committee consists of three members, drawn from the institute faculty and staff members. While recent participants are eligible to apply, project selection committees are directed to give first consideration to applicants who have not participated in an NEH-supported seminar or institute in the last three years (2005, 2006, 2007). Recent participation in NEH’s Landmarks of American History and Culture Program does not negatively affect eligibility or competitiveness.
The most important consideration in the selection of participants is the likelihood that an applicant will benefit professionally and personally. This is determined by committee members from the conjunction of several factors, each of which should be addressed in the application essay. These factors include:

• effectiveness and commitment as a teacher/educator;
  
• intellectual interests, both generally and as they relate to the work of the project;
  
• special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the seminar or institute;
  
• commitment to participate fully in the formal and informal collegial life of the project; and
  
• the likelihood that the experience will enhance the applicant's teaching.

When choices must be made among equally qualified candidates, several additional factors are considered. Preference is given to applicants who have not previously participated in an NEH seminar or institute, or who significantly contribute to the diversity of the seminar or institute.

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STIPEND, TENURE, AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD

Teachers selected to participate in this four-week long project will receive a stipend of $3,000. Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and living expenses for the duration of the period spent in residence. Stipends are taxable
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. Participants who, for any reason, do not complete the full tenure of the project must refund a pro-rata portion of the stipend.
At the end of the project's residential period, participants will be asked to submit on-line 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.

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EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. For further information, write to NEH Equal Opportunity Officer, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. TDD: 202/606 8282 (this is a special telephone device for the Deaf).

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Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed on this website do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.