Pitt’s Global Studies Center to Launch Egyptian Culture and Arabic Language Study Program for Secondary Education Majors

PITTSBURGH—Pitt’s Global Studies Center (GSC) and the Consortium for Educational Resources for Islamic Studies (CERIS) will organize a Fulbright Hays study program for junior and senior undergraduate students enrolled in a secondary education or pre-education track programs at nine CERIS-member institutions in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. 

The program, titled “Speaking the Culture of Egypt: Experiential Learning Program for Future Secondary Education Teachers,” will consist of online study instruction, cross-cultural training, a six-week living/learning experience that includes the study of colloquial Egyptian dialect in Egypt, and post-travel online exchanges. 

The program is designed to allow students to develop a better understanding of historical and contemporary Egypt and the Middle East and speak Arabic with some proficiency. In addition, six authentic language resources and 12 digital stories will be created and made available to secondary and Arabic language educators online at Maktaba, an Arabic language resource for educators created by GSC and available on its Web site. 

The program will be administered by GSC with Pitt and eight other participating CERIS institutions: Baldwin Wallace College, California University of Pennsylvania, Chatham University, Community College of Allegheny County, Mercyhurst College, Seton Hill University, Slippery Rock University, and Youngstown State University. These institutions were selected because of their large enrollments of secondary education majors and because they offer Modern Standard Arabic. 

GSC is a national resource center of excellence as designated by the U.S. Department of Education and houses the Secretariat of CERIS. GSC is within Pitt’s University Center for International Studies. 

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