11:47 a.m., Jan. 20, 2010----The English Language Institute (ELI) in the University of Delaware's College of Education and Public Policy has received a $546,650 grant from the U.S. Department of State to fund its Undergraduate Intensive English Language Program.

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The program will provide training for undergraduate students from Angola, South Africa, Bosnia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Mauritania, Laos, East Timor, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Haiti. The students will be on campus in two cohorts of 30 students each for eight-week periods from May through August, 2010.

The program includes intensive instruction in English for academic purposes, as well as technology training, leadership development, campus/community connections, and cultural activities and excursions.

Staff at the ELI will be teaming up with faculty in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, including Kathryn Denhardt and Audrey Helfman, director of the Organizational and Community Leadership Program, to provide the leadership development and community service aspects of the program in collaboration with UD undergrads.

"We are particularly pleased to be a part of this project, as it specifically targets economically disadvantaged students in the participating countries," said Scott Stevens, director of the ELI, who is a co-principal investigator on the grant along with Baerbel Schumacher. "And the timing could not be better for bringing some hope to a handful of bright young Haitian undergrads."

Stevens said that there were hundreds of proposals submitted to the State Department for this very competitive grant, but that UD was selected based on the outstanding reputation of the ELI and the well-articulated plan for service learning and community engagement put forward by the institute and the college.