SELECTION CRITERIA

Offered in Summer 2010, Building America: Minnesota's Iron Range, U.S. Industrialization, and the Creation of a World Power residential workshops will be based on national history standards and the national social studies standards and will be organized around three central themes that align with those standards. These three themes are: 1) Natural History of the Landmark: Geography and Geology; 2) The Mines and their Contributions to American History; and 3) The People and the Mines.  Click here to see an introduction to the content by viewing part of the Emmy-Award winning documentary based on the 2008 Landmarks workshop.

WHEN WILL THE WORKSHOPS TAKE PLACE?
Two one-week residential workshops will be conducted in northern Minnesota’s Iron Range during the weeks of June 13-18 or August 1-6, 2010. Each week, 40 participants from across the nation will explore the Iron Range and the people who worked, sacrificed, and died in the mines to build industrial America and help win two world wars.
 
WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE?
Classroom teachers and librarians in public, private, parochial, and charter schools, as well as home-schooling parents are eligible to participate. Other K-12 school personnel, including administrators, substitute teachers, and classroom paraprofessionals, are also eligible to participate, subject to available space.
 
Teachers at schools in the United States or its territorial possessions or Americans teaching in foreign schools where at least 50 percent of the students are American nationals are eligible for this program. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching abroad are not eligible to apply.

Applicants must complete the NEH application and provide all of the information requested to be considered eligible. An individual may apply to a maximum of three (3) separate projects (Landmarks workshops, seminars or institutes); however, they may participate in only ONE project per summer. Past or present participation in the NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes program does not affect an individual’s eligibility to participate in Landmarks programs.

SELECTION CRITERIA
A selection committee (consisting in most cases of the project director, one of the project scholars, and a veteran teacher) will read and evaluate all properly completed applications. 

Special consideration is given to the likelihood that an applicant will benefit professionally and personally from the workshop experience.  It is important, therefore, to address each of the following factors in the application essay:

  1. your professional background;
  2. your interest in the subject of the workshop;
  3. your special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the workshop; and
  4. how the experience would enhance your teaching or school service.

Preference is given to applicants who have not previously participated in a NEH Landmarks workshop, seminar or institute.

HOW MUCH DOES THE WORKSHOP COST?
 
Each accepted participant will receive a $1,200 stipend from which the cost of meals, lodging, and travel expenses on the landmark, will have been paid in advance.*  Participants will receive the remainder of their stipend on the last day of the program. Remaining amounts may be applied to costs incurred to travel to the Minnesota Humanities Center.  

The following are all included:

  • Five nights of lodging, Sunday through Thursday, in Virginia, MN, at the Coates Hotel
  • Fees for Landmark tours (mines, etc.)
  • Meals provided as follows:

Sunday – lunch and dinner
Monday through Thursday – breakfast, lunch and dinner
Friday – breakfast and lunch.
Snacks and water will also be provided throughout the 5 days.

Participants will choose from two package options:

Expenses will be finalized, current estimates are below:

  • Single occupancy @ $800.00*
  • Double occupancy (shared with another participant) @ $750.00*

*The final expense amount will be subtracted from the $1,200.00

(Those unable to attend the entire program will receive prorated amounts.)

Participants will provide NEH with an assessment of their workshop experience, especially in terms of its value to their personal and professional development. You will be asked to provide a confidential online evaluation at the close of the workshop. We will also remain in touch with you through the rest of 2010 in order to hear how you are using the information gathered.