UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Global Teach Ag Network (GTAN) at Penn State has been awarded the Bringing the World to Pennsylvania: K-16 Collaboration Award from the Pennsylvania Council for International Education.
The award recognizes GTAN — which is affiliated with Ag Sciences Global in the College of Agricultural Sciences — as a leader in advancing global perspectives in Pennsylvania education through innovative collaborations between K-12 and higher education.
Melanie Miller Foster, associate teaching professor and GTAN co-founder, said the network was established in 2014 with the goal of empowering educators through research-based professional development opportunities focused on global agriculture and food insecurity.
“By equipping both current and future educators with the skills and knowledge to integrate global perspectives into their teaching,” Miller Foster said, “GTAN hopes to foster generational impact that will empower students to become informed, engaged and empathetic members of the global community.”
Since its founding, GTAN has built a network of more than 25 partner organizations representing academia, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations — bringing together knowledge, resources and best practices for empowering educators worldwide.
The network has offered many professional development opportunities for current K-12 educators. For example, GTAN in the past 10 years has offered three Fulbright-Hays programs, which provided one-month international immersion opportunities for Pennsylvania secondary educators in Korea, Malaysia and Uganda.
“These experiences not only broaden educators’ perspectives,” Miller Foster said, “but also empower them to cultivate global citizenship within their classrooms, preparing students to navigate an increasingly interconnected world.”
GTAN also offers many programs for future educators, including a one-year program focused on food security education that includes a study away experience, a one-week teaching residency and an international immersion. Other programs include an embedded course focused on indigenous knowledge and agricultural education with travel to Belize, as well as meaningful internship opportunities with GTAN.
“Educator professional development is one of the most powerful ways to scale up youth impact for both immediate and sustained, generational change,” said GTAN co-founder Daniel Foster, associate professor of agricultural and extension education. “Looking ahead, we envision GTAN continuing to serve as a hub for innovative collaboration, inspiring educators to embrace global perspectives and preparing the next generation to address the complex challenges of our interconnected world.”
For more information, visit the GTAN website.