Stephen J. Nagle, professor of English at Coastal Carolina University, has received a $70,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a South Carolina initiative for the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program, "East Central Europe and the European Union: A Case Study of Poland as a Leading Candidate for Membership."

The program, co-directed by Joe Mazurkiewicz of Coastal's Office of Counseling Services, will form a team of educators from South Carolina schools and universities to serve as active resources on Poland, East Central Europe and the European Union for teacher training and curriculum development throughout the state. Fourteen instructors will be chosen from schools and universities which are members of the South Carolina Consortium for International Studies (SSCIS), a co-sponsor of the project, and from other S.C. middle and high schools.

Educators selected for the program will travel to Poland for 33 days in the summer of 2003 for an intensive study program on the country's history, culture and economy. Upon returning, the team will work closely with the S.C. Department of Education, which has instituted a set of innovative social studies standards with a strong global emphasis in the state's secondary schools.

The federally funded portion of the project, which supports only the travel/study segment, will be augmented by approximately $25,000 in matching funds from the participants' institutions and from other sources, including $3,000 from SCCIS.