November 17-21 is designated International Education Week, a joint initiative by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education. International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchanges worldwide.
TCA has made international education a core area of its mission and programs since its inception in 2007. The TCA Study Abroad in Turkey Scholarship program was launched the same year to advance international educational opportunities for American minority students, who are severely underrepresented in study abroad programs. TCA has set aside 100 scholarships per year and thus far has provided 371 scholarships to American students of African (199), Armenian (7), Bosnian (2), Hispanic/Latino (144), Filipino (1) and Native American (18) descent. The students came from 122 universities across the United States and studied at 22 universities in Turkey.
In addition to supporting study abroad opportunities for American minority students, TCA has supported American educational institutions' efforts to expand the horizons of their students through international travel. Since 2008, the TCA Study Tour Grants program provided 16 grants to sponsor study tours to Turkey, supporting the travel of 176 American students to Turkey.
Since 2007, TCA has allocated nearly $ 550,000 to expand international education in the form of educational exchanges with Turkey. We hope that the students who benefitted from these program will be better prepared for the global environment, and help strengthen people-to-people ties between the United States and Turkey.
