Announcements

IREX is working to make a better world through its efforts in the field of education. We are pleased to celebrate International Education Week as established by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education.

In this new Annual Report, you will see the stories of men and women working with IREX to make lives better for people, communities, and institutions in 120 countries around the world. Our work today reaches and helps more people than ever before in our history. These stories highlight just a handful of the 300,000 people IREX has helped this year.
To read more visit our Annual Reports Page or read below:

IREX congratulates Nobel Peace Prize winners Tawakul Karman from Yemen, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee. They exemplify the power of women civil society leaders to be true peacemakers and embody the focus of IREX’s work in gender, conflict resolution, media and civil society development.

“When I saw the first student entering the classroom, I said to myself, “Ok, now you are the teacher! Be calm and take a deep breath,” said Merve Celen, a recent university graduate from Bogazici University in Istanbul, recounting her experience teaching an English class in Arkansas for the first time. Merve spent the past six weeks in Fayetteville, Arkansas with 21 other aspiring English teachers from Turkey participating in the Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program.

One hundred American high school teachers from across the country are internationalizing their fall lesson plans after returning from global professional development visits worldwide.

Nearly 100 young ambassadors from Pakistan arrived to begin their cultural experience in the United States. The fellows will spend the fall academic semester at 51 different colleges and universities in 31 states, conducting community service, participating in cross-cultural activities, and developing their academic and leadership skills.

For the past two years, the Tech Age Girls (TAG) project has been implemented in Kyrgyzstan, and the Soros Foundation (SFK) has been a big supporter. Through its Youth Initiative Program, SFK contributed over $8,000 the first year and over $13,000 this year to TAG.

143 young leaders from Eurasia and Central Asia arrived to begin academic and cultural fellowships at undergraduate institutions across the United States.  Selected from among a large pool of applicants, Global UGRAD fellows spend an academic year studying at American universities and colleges, participating in cultural activities, as well as conducting community service and engaging in professional interships. 

A group of teachers from Pakistan arrived in the US recently and IREX welcomed them into the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA), which brings outstanding secondary school teachers from around the globe to the United States to further develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills, and increase their knowledge about the United States.