ATLANTA – Mercer University's Cleopatra Warren, a student in Tift College of Education's Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction program, was recently selected by the University of Pittsburgh's European Studies Center (ESC) to participate in this year's Brussels Study Tour.
The tour, an opportunity for undergraduates, K-12 educators and faculty teaching at community colleges or minority-serving institutions to gain firsthand knowledge and experiences to further their understanding of Europe and the European Union, will take place June 18-24.
The five-day, all-expense paid trip to Brussels, Belgium, will include visits to the EU Council, the EU Commission, the European Network Against Racism, the U.S. Mission to the EU, Bruegel – an economic think tank, the European External Action Service, the EU Parliament, NATO and the European School IV of Brussels. Participants are required to develop a curricular unit on a topic related to the EU to be shared as a resource on the European Studies Center website and participate in three “Conversations on Teaching Europe” videoconferences organized by the ESC.
“Ms. Warren is one of the most passionate and dedicated educator-student-researchers I have had the pleasure to teach and learn from,” said Dr. Wynnetta Scott-Simmons, associate professor of education. “She possesses the unique ability to mesh the dreamer of an academic artist with the reality of an educational scientist. Her tireless professional passion, dedication and creativity have earned her the respect of her work colleagues and her cohort peers, as well as the trust of the students she teaches and for whom she advocates tirelessly. It is no wonder that she was selected by the University of Pittsburgh's European Studies Center to participate in this year's Brussels Study Tour.”
Warren is a department chairperson and economics and Advanced Placement U.S. history instructor at Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy in Atlanta. She previously taught at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2006-2007 and received the STAR Teacher Award from the Professional Association of Georgia Educators and the Raymond Plank Award from Communities in Schools Atlanta.
She has received a number of awards and recognitions, including a National Civic Voices Fellowship, a Gilder-Lehrman Fellowship to the University of the West Indies, a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Brazil, an OxBridge Career Fellowship to the University of Paris, a National Endowment for the Humanities Award to the University of Hawaii East-West Center and a Yale University Programs in International and Area Studies Fellowship.
She has participated as a delegate to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and as a keynote speaker at the International Black Women's Roundtable in Harare, Zimbabwe. She has also presented at numerous conferences and workshops and authored publications for the Association for African American Life and History's Black History Bulletin and the Southern Poverty Law Center's Tolerance Magazine.
Warren earned her Bachelor of Arts in political science, magna cum laude, from Morris Brown College and her Master of Arts in social science education from New York University's Graduate School of Education, where she was a Dean's Fellow.
“It's a great honor to be considered for the 2017 Brussels Study Tour,” said Warren. “As a participant, I will work on internationalizing my curriculum to support intercultural understanding among divergent student learners. I particularly look forward to acquiring interdisciplinary perspectives from the historical, cultural and political significance of the European Union and its institutions within a more globalized context.”
The ESC receives funding from the European Union and the U.S. Department of Education for the Brussels Study Tour. For more information on the program, visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/esc/content/brussels-study-tour.
About the Tift College of Education
Mercer University's Tift College of Education – with campuses in Macon, Atlanta and the University's three Regional Academic Centers – prepares more professional educators than any other private institution in Georgia. The College offers baccalaureate and graduate degrees, and is guided by the conceptual framework of the “Transforming Practitioner,” which supports those who aspire to grow professionally throughout their careers, while also seeking to transform the lives of students. education.mercer.edu
