Education Program Abroad

Education Program Abroad (EPA)

FLENJ promotes excellence in world language education in the 21st century. FLENJ will support world language educators in New Jersey by awarding up to $3,000 for education abroad.

Applicants must be a member of FLENJ during the application year and the prior year. Applicants should be employed as a world language teacher in a public or private school in New Jersey, at the elementary, middle, or secondary level; or in a college or university.


Applicants for the scholarship must submit:

  1. A curriculum vitae.
  2. Two recommendations — with at least one from an immediate supervisor. Recommendations should include detailed comments on the teacher’s abilities and interests as well as the benefit that an education abroad experience would provide the applicant.
  3. Education-abroad program information.
    This should include details of the program in which the applicant wishes to participate: name, dates, program content, and location of program (target country). Information should also include academic credit available (if applicable) and expenses (required).
  4. An essay in English of up to 500 words describing how this experience will enhance and invigorate the applicant’s teaching, benefit students, benefit other teachers, and benefit the world language profession in general (e.g., through a report on the experience or a workshop at a conference, etc.).

Members who have received an EPA scholarship within the past 5 years are ineligible to apply.

Applicants will be evaluated by the FLENJ Education-Abroad Awards Committee. Please use the Evaluation Rubric to guide your application.

To apply, please go to the online application form here.
Please complete all parts of the application before submitting. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

All applications must be received by FLENJ by December 1. Please contact EPA@flenj.org if you have questions.


Awards will vary from $1,000–$3,000, depending on the costs of the chosen program. Award recipients must show:

• Proof of acceptance into the proposed program, and
• Proof of payment.

One third of the award will be reimbursed prior to travel, with the submission of receipts indicating expenses paid. One third will be reimbursed after travel. The remaining one thirds will be awarded at the following annual FLENJ Spring Conference, where the recipient will participate with others in a presentation on the benefits of education abroad; receipts must be submitted prior to reimbursement. If for any reason recipients are unable to complete the trip, funds advanced prior to travel must be returned to FLENJ.

Education Abroad Program Winner*

2017 – Congratulations to Sharon Galt, a teacher of Spanish at Stirling High School in Somerdale, NJ for being the 2017 recipient of a $3,000 scholarship from FLENJ’s Education Program Abroad.  Sharon studied at the Casco Language School in Panama in which she had the opportunity to learn about the local language and culture while volunteering to work in local schools.  By volunteering her time in a school, she was able to give back to the community as they had helped her learn and grow in her cultural and linguistic understanding of the Spanish language.


2016 – Congratulations to Mimma-Marie Cammarata, teacher of Italian, and Michelle Myers, teacher of French for being the 2016 winners of a $3,000 EPA scholarship. The Sterling High School instructors will take a gastronomic tour of Peru with their Spanish teacher colleague Sharon Galt, exploring the agricultural and culinary practices of the Inca in order to trace the indigenous foods from the Americas to the Mediterranean. Their hope is to show how the staple foods of the Inca revolutionized the Mediterranean diet and cuisine in Italy, France, and Spain. Their research will then be used to create common lessons to improve students’ linguistic and cultural fluency in Spanish, French and Italian.
Read more >>


2015 – Congratulations to Kimberly O’Brien, a teacher of Spanish for the Somers Point Public Schools District, for being the 2015 recipient of a $3,000 scholarship from FLENJ’s Education Program Abroad. She will spend two weeks in Oaxaca, Mexico immersed in the Spanish language by living with a host family and enjoying cultural outings and cooking classes. She will then return to her classroom with artisanal Oaxacan products and authentic texts in Spanish to support her curriculum.

For more details about her project, please contact Kimberly directly!


2014 – Congratulations to Ashley Warren, a teacher of Spanish at West Windsor–Plainsboro High School North, for being the 2014 recipient—and FLENJ’s very first recipient—of a $3,000 scholarship from FLENJ’s Education Program Abroad. She will spend three weeks in Santiago, Chile. There, in addition to developing her Spanish proficiency, she will conduct research, and develop and acquire resources and realia for a new thematic unit on human rights.

For more details about her project, please contact Ashley directly!


*Questions about the application process? Questions about how to find a program? Feel free to contact previous winners (links above) or the program coordinator Salvatore Veniero. Don’t forget! If your native language is not English, you are entitled to a mentor’s help with your application. So please write us!