LOCAL TEACHER TO BE AN HONORED GUEST OF JAPANESE GOVERNMENT 

This October, Grace Oyekan will depart for Tokyo as a participant in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Program. Oyekan, from Houston Independent School District’s Cunningham Elementary School (5100 Gulfton, 77081) was selected from a national pool of over 1,700 applicants by a panel of educators to earn this honor.  This program allows distinguished primary and secondary school educators in the U.S. to travel to Japan for three weeks in an effort to promote greater intercultural understanding between the two nations. 
 
Mrs. Oyekan will be among 160 educators visiting Japan in October. They will begin their visit in Tokyo with a practical orientation on Japanese life and culture and meetings with Japanese government officials and educators. They then will travel in groups of 16 to selected host cities where they will have direct contact with Japanese teachers and students during visits to primary and secondary schools as well as a teachers college.  They will also visit cultural sites and local industries in addition to a brief homestay with a Japanese family. 
 
The Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund, based in Tokyo, oversees all aspects of the Teacher Program.  The program is sponsored by the Government of Japan and was launched in 1997 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. government Fulbright Program, which has enabled more than 6,000 Japanese citizens to study in the U.S. on Fulbright fellowships for graduate education and research.  The Institute of International Education acts as the agency for the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund to coordinate the recruitment and pre-departure activities of the Teacher Program in the United States.  
 
Up to 320 educators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will be invited to visit Japan in June and October of 2008 (160 in each group).  To date, more than 6000 primary and secondary school educators have visited Japan through the JFMF Teacher Program.  Upon their return, program participants share what they have learned about Japan with their students and communities through a variety of outreach projects.  
  
For more information about the JFMF Teacher Program, please refer to http://www.fulbrightmemorialfund.jp  or contact 1-888-527-2636 (1-888-Japan-FMF) or jfmf@iie.org .