Praxair Providing Scholarships to Danbury K-12 Educators Interested in Attending CELF’s 2012 Summer Institute
CHAPPAQUA, NY, July 3, 2012 ... The Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) announced today that full scholarships are available for Danbury elementary, middle and high school teachers interested in attending its summer training workshop, the 2012 CELF Summer Institute: Education for Sustainability. The professional development workshop will take place at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY July 16 through 18, with an optional fourth day for additional curriculum design support on July 19.
Pricing for the 4-day event is ordinarily $450. Danbury public school teachers, however, may attend the Institute free of charge due to a special grant received from Praxair, a Danbury-based Fortune 300 corporation and leading supplier of atmospheric, process and specialty gases.
According to Praxair spokesperson Riva Krut who is in charge of the corporation’s sustainability initiatives, “Praxair recognizes the role it must play in helping to develop the economic, social and environmental solutions that will meet today's demands while preserving the promise of the future. Supporting the sustainability teaching efforts of Danbury’s public school teachers through CELF’s highly acclaimed environmental literacy program fully supports this mission. ”
CELF’s Executive Director Katie Ginsberg explained that CELF’s Summer Institute, now in its 8th year, has helped hundreds of educators seamlessly integrate Education for Sustainability (EfS) into existing curriculum across all subject areas. One such educator is Chris DeMattia, a past
CELF Summer Institute participant and chemistry teacher at Fox Lane High School in Bedford, NY.
"As a teacher I demand that any summer work I do to be fun, refreshing and worthwhile and the CELF Summer Institute was just that,” said DeMattia. “My experience at the Institute enabled me to help students connect to the content by framing student learning with real, local environmental problems that impact them directly. The program was designed so that I had time to create new -- or reframed -- exciting lessons, projects, or units with high-quality support and feedback from the Institute instructors."
Institute registrants currently represent a wide variety of private and public schools from the Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT regions. Additionally, for the first time the program will include international participation, with an academic supervisor and moral sciences teacher from a United Arab Emirates private school enrolled to participate.
CELF Summer Institute participants are eligible for in-service credits, or graduate credits from the Manhattanville College School of Education. Due to space limitations and timing sensitivities, teachers are encouraged to sign up as early as possible. Danbury teacher scholarships are available on a limited basis. For more information and/or to register, go to www.celfeducation.org or call 914-238-4753.
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About The Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF): Founded in 2003 and based in Chappaqua, NY, CELF was created to promote awareness of the importance of sustainability education and to help schools and school districts make sustainability an ongoing part of education. To achieve this, CELF provides consulting services for schools and school districts, training for teachers and administrators and sustainability education programs for students. A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, CELF works with all kinds of schools—urban, suburban and rural, public and private. For more information go to: www.celfeducation.org.
About Praxair: Praxair is a global Fortune 300 company that supplies atmospheric, process and specialty gases, high-performance coatings, and related services and technologies. Among the gases supplied are oxygen, nitrogen,argon, carbon dioxide, helium, and hydrogen. With 26,000 employees and active in more than 50 ountries, Praxair is focused on making our planet more productive by helping its customers become more profitable, efficient and environmentally friendly. For more information go to: www.praxair.com.
