IU earned the NAFSA 2021 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization for its Global Gateway for Teachers. The program is housed at the IU School of Education in Bloomington and provides education students with intercultural immersion experiences, such as study abroad, while also helping them fulfill their student teaching requirements.

"The intention of our program is to prepare IU teacher candidates for the real world in which they will be employed, where elementary and secondary classrooms are filled with culturally, racially and linguistically diverse pupils who come from myriad backgrounds," said Laura L. Stachowski, director of Global Gateway for Teachers. "Our program takes student teachers on a journey that requires stepping well beyond their comfort zones in both school and community contexts. In the process, they set out on a trajectory of transformation.

"We strongly believe that there is no 'end' to the experience; instead, it continues to shape who they are, personally and professionally, as they move forward through their lives."

For more, read the press release from News at IU.