The Edward E. Ford Foundation recently awarded Wilbraham & Monson Academy (WMA) a $50,000 matching grant to develop a Faculty Globalization/Global Economics Professional Development Program that will benefit not only teachers at the Academy, but public and private school teachers from around our region through a series of seminars, workshops, and presentations that will take place over the next three years.

Wilbraham & Monson Academy was one of a select group of independent schools chosen from a competitive pool of applicants to receive a grant this past summer. The grant requires a 1:2 match, and the Academy has secured a $100,000 pledge of support from Trustee and Wilbraham Academy Class of 1950 Alumnus James LaCrosse, who grew up in the historic Old Meeting House located just steps from the WMA campus. The matching funds will be used to build endowment to support faculty professional development experiences on campus.

“In order to fulfill our mission of developing tomorrow’s global leaders and our ongoing role as The Global School®, our faculty must develop new skills and understanding to enrich our overall global-leadership pedagogy and to create clear curricular objectives relating to the development of global leadership. Our program will provide faculty members with a combination of hands-on field experiences, interactions with global business leaders and non-governmental organizations, and participant-led seminars, expanding our faculty’s understanding of key themes in globalization and global economics and enhancing our students’ educational experiences,” says Wilbraham & Monson Academy Head of School Rodney LaBrecque. “In addition we hope to share our knowledge with other teachers so that they can enhance their own curricula through workshops and seminars.”

Programs for WMA faculty will begin in the spring of 2010 and presentations on global economics open to other private and public school teachers will begin later that year.

About The Edward E. Ford Foundation: http://www.eeford.org/homepage/index.asp