AATG Grant Funded Programs Report
You may have noticed our annual funded programs page on our home page. If you are not a frequent visitor, I encourage you to check back regularly. Since the pandemic, the AATG has dedicated a lot of staff and volunteer time to providing direct, material support to teachers, programs, and students. The pandemic caused a hard reset of our programmatic work, as it did for many institutions, so the AATG has taken stock of the work we have done in the past few years and is providing this report to our membership and the public.
Since 2020, the AATG has given out grants and scholarships to over 2082 recipients totaling $1,701,756.93!
We are proud to provide this report to the membership to show how far we have all come in the organization. AATG has added many new funded programs, and there are more in the works! Yes, 2020 was a rough year for us all, but we have come back roaring and look forward to the next few years when we offer more opportunities to the AATG community.
Your membership in AATG allows us time to pursue grant writing opportunities, and partnerships, and to have an organization that receives donations from a variety of sources. We are incredibly grateful to our professional partners, our donors, and to allied organizations in the field for their ongoing support of German language learning.
Grants and scholarships are vital for two reasons:
- They provide essential resources that enable paths of access to the German language
- They demonstrate the support needed across the nation at a variety of levels.
While funding is only one indicator of success, it is a quantifiable measure of our collective action and indicates how important German is in our educational system.
Check back regularly, and thank you for your participation in the programs and services of the American Association of Teachers of German!
Overall, the AATG provides a large number of scholarships in three key areas. The overview graphic shows the progress made in the past few years to secure grants and scholarships to support German.
Note: The figures represented here represent money dispersed directly to programs, students, and teachers and do not include any operational costs associated with managing these programs.
Program Grants
AATG program grants support institutions as a whole. These grants go to school classrooms, support speakers, events, celebrations, and more. These grants have been in the form of our AATG Chapter Projects, Deutsch macht Spaß Program, or for our Academic Honor Societies. These funds come largely from external agencies and foundations who support the mission of our organization and wish to keep German programs healthy and active. While we have seen a decrease in available funding from granting agencies, we are funding new ways to support programs directly and will continue to do so going forward.
Student Grants
Student grants and scholarships largely support our summer study programs like the AATG High School Summer Study Program and the AATG College Summer Program.
The National German Exam, for example, offers many study scholarships for the national prizewinners as well.
Similarly, some external funding has diminished, so we have conducted successful fundraising programs to offer new programs since 2020, including:
The Halle Foundation Scholarship
AATG NGE Post-Graduate Scholarship for High School Seniors
AATG Honor Society Post-Graduate Scholarship for High School Seniors
AATG College Summer Program Scholarship
Delta Phi Alpha National Award for Undergraduate Students
Teacher Grants
Grants provided to German teachers support professional development and lower obstacles to important programs like the annual convention. The AATG supports teachers through our annual summer seminars in Leipzig and Heidelberg. Additionally, the new AATG professional development fund supports teachers in their efforts to seek transformational professional development. We have new grants coming online soon, so check back regularly!
Donations to AATG make many of these opportunities possible. Please consider a donation to support one of these programs, or if you are affiliated with a foundation, reach out to us to learn more about ways that the AATG can help support multilingualism in the US with direct support to programs, student, and teachers!
Sincerely,
Michael R. Shaughnessy, Ph.D.
Executive Director
September, 2024