EU Center to Sponsor Three Midwest Educators on Study Tour of Brussels and Luxembourg

Photo by Markian Dobczansky

by Sydney Lazarus, outreach & FLAS coordinator at the European Union Center

This June 16-22, the European Union Center will be sponsoring three K-14 educators on the Brussels-Lux Study Tour, a week-long study tour to Belgium and Luxembourg intended to provide educators with first-hand knowledge of the European Union and its institutions. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI National Resource Center grant, the study tour is organized by the University of Pittsburgh’s European Studies Center in cooperation with the University of North Carolina’s Center for European Studies.

Our EU Center has been sponsoring educators and students to go on this study tour for over a decade. Participants spend five days in Brussels visiting EU institutions, including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European External Action Service. Since 2022, the study tour has also included a day trip to Luxembourg to visit the Court of Justice of the European Union. The guided tours of EU institutions are balanced with visits to NATO, museums, and, of course, free time to explore Brussels. After the tour, the participants design lesson plans and syllabi incorporating what they learned during the week.

2023 Brussels-Lux Study Tour participants at NATO Headquarters. Photo by Markian Dobczansky

The three educators sponsored by the EU Center this year are Paul Edleman, a political science and communication studies instructor at Sauk Valley Community College in Rock Falls, Ill.; Dan Hoppe, a world history and comparative government teacher at Bay Port High School in Green Bay, Wisc; and Anne Oestreicher, a legal studies instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay, Wisc. These three educators were selected from a pool of 45 applications. The EU Center's funding to support
these three educators also comes from the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI National Resource Center grant.

The itinerary for the 2024 study tour will be finalized in the coming days. Check back later this summer for photos and impressions from the study tour!

Adolphe Bridge in Luxembourg City. Photo by Markian Dobczansky