Programs

How GIF Helps

The Foundation provides funding in the form of grants to teachers, staff and community members. Programs funded in the past include:

• Special in-service training for new teachers prior to the start of the regular school year.
• Attendance of staff members at educator's conferences, methods seminars, or other professional development activities.
• Tuition grants for children to attend Goethe House German language summer program.
• Funding for educational and cultural activities to enhance student trips abroad.
• Funding for interns from Germany to work with students in the schools as teaching assistants.
• Support for school families hosting interns from Germany.

Foundation grants are evaluated by a Grants Review Committee, which is comprised of school staff members, a school administrator, and Foundation board members to ensure only the most beneficial programs are funded. The Foundation is flexible in the types of requests it will consider. All grant proposals must be consistent with the Foundation's mission of furthering educational excellence at the schools.

$17,000 German Immersion Foundation grant supports new math curriculum

The German Immersion Foundation, Inc. recently awarded a grant of $17,000 to support the new mathematics curriculum at the Milwaukee German Immersion School and the Milwaukee School of Languages.

Not only was a new math textbook introduced at MGIS this year, but the text chosen was written in German and has been used in Germany for several years. The German Immersion Foundation funds enabled teachers to participate in crucial planning and preparation over the summer so they could “hit the ground running” in September. The result was that teachers taught using the new textbook on day one, confident in the changes that were made. Because the same math program is used in sixth grade, the grant also helped fifth grade teachers at MGIS collaborate with sixth grade math teachers at MSL to make the transition for students from elementary to middle school easier.

“Being able to fund requests like this is exactly why the Foundation was established in the first place,” says Mike Carroll, German Immersion Foundation Board President. “This grant touches every student and teacher and makes the German programs at both schools that much stronger.”

2007 Grant Awards

Our goal at the German Immersion Foundation (GIF) is simple: to provide the extra support necessary to maintain and build excellence in a German Immersion program that has won national and international acclaim. 2007 was a record year for the foundation with total grants awarded exceeding $59,000. These grants included:

• All new computers for the MGIS computer lab.
• New digital video projectors for the Milwaukee School of Languages (MSL).
• New materials for the Milwaukee German Immersion School (MGIS) library.
• Expanding the Amity Internship Program to MSL.
• Continued support of the Amity Internship Program at MGIS.
• Support for MGIS curriculum writing.
• Funding for Mueller Scholarship winners.
• Support for the MGIS 30th Anniversary celebration.
• Support for MSL math curriculum development.
• Funded the participation of four teachers at a Goethe House language immersion program in Casper, Wyoming.
• Support for staff to attend Language Immersion conferences

For more information on how to apply for GIF grants and the criteria used in evaluating grant requests, please click here.

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