UChicago UTEP's Esther Ohito Chosen for a Fulbright Award

Through a competitive process, the Urban Teacher Education Program’s Esther Ohito, a coach and facilitator for the first-year induction program and 2008 Golden Apple Award winner, has been selected to become a Fulbright Scholar for the summer of 2011.

Through the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program, Ohito will be traveling to five states in Brazil during the month of July with a group of 14 other educators, and representatives of the Fulbright Commission (U.S. Department of State.)  

Participants will study the historical, social, cultural, political, and economic aspects of Brazilian society, observe the interaction between tradition and modernity and the consequences of social change. They will also engage in a series of dialogues with scholars, government officials, and Brazilians from various walks of life.  

Ohito remarked that the “experience will allow me to expand my knowledge base about aspects of Brazilian history and society, and wonderfully complicate ways of thinking about race and culture, all of which intersect with the content of UChicago UTEP’s Soul Strand.”

UChicago UTEP’s Soul Strand is a component of the Foundations Sequence. Through a variety of media—including film, fiction, and memoir—this distinctive component enables students to explore issues of teacher identity and educational equity as well as the ways in which race, class, and culture affect both teachers and students.