Mrs. Argine Safari of Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey has received a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching grant to Finland from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Mrs. Safari is one of approximately 35 U.S. citizens, and the only teacher from New Jersey, who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program in 2018-2019.
Mrs. Safari, who participated in the 2017 NJPSA Arts Education Summit, will travel to Finland in January 2019 to develop a global collaborative project with the University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy, several Finnish schools, and her own district. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential. Mrs. Safari is a Grammy-nominated educator who is the 2018 NJEA Arts Educator of the Year, the 2018 Lowell Milken Center Fellow, the 2017 New Jersey State Teacher of the Year, the 2017 Evangelina Menendez Trailblazer (awarded by the U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, a Fulbright alumnus), The NEA Foundation 2018 Teaching Excellence Award recipient, and the 2010 Princeton University Distinguished Scholar. Currently, Mrs. Safari is pursuing her Ph.D. in Learning, Instruction and Innovation from Walden University.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.