ELIGIBILITY

These projects are designed for full‑time teachers including home-schooling parents, but other K-12 school personnel, such as librarians and administrators, may also be eligible to apply, depending on the specific seminar or institute.  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 abroad at non-U.S. chartered institutions 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.

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.  (Seminar selection committees consist of the seminar director, a school teacher who is usually a participant in a previous NEH seminar, and a colleague of the director.  Institute selection committees consist of three to five members, usually all 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 (2006, 2007, 2008).   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:

            1.  effectiveness and commitment as a teacher/educator;            

            2.  intellectual interests, both generally and as they relate to the work of the project;            

            3.  special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the seminar or institute;                

            4.  commitment to participate fully in the formal and informal collegial life of the project; and            

            5.  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.