The Indiana University Bloomington School of Education’s Global Gateway for Teachers, an award-winning program that allows future educators to spend one of their student teaching semesters abroad, is a finalist for the Award for Excellence in Curriculum Design from The Forum on Education Abroad.

Laura Stachowski, faculty director of the program, is one of four finalists for 2024 and the only individual to be nominated. The course, EDUC T550: Cultural/Community Forces and the Schools, includes a yearlong commitment with preparatory classes, readings, a workshop and student teaching in Indiana. It culminates in an eight-week international teaching placement in one of the 21 partner countries.

Stachowski is an alumna of the program, having student taught in Preston, England, in 1979. After teaching in a classroom, she returned to IU, where she earned a master’s degree and doctorate before taking over the program from her mentor in 1995.

The Forum on Education Abroad, a nonprofit dedicated to developing and upholding standards for every education abroad program in the U.S., awards the Excellence in Curriculum Design to one individual or group and is the only such recognition in the field. The finalists will be honored and the award will be given at the forum’s annual conference in February.