“Our goal in this long-term English program is to help them express their dreams, visions, etc. and seeing where they get to go (after IEI) is great,” said GET Coordinator Allison Wheeler.
URBANA, Ill. — The 2024-2025 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) kicked off its long-term, intensive English training in April.
Fourteen Fellows will call Illinois their home for 16 weeks (April-July) while they engage in English training, cultural orientations, and professional skill building sessions with the Intensive English Institute (IEI) and Global Education and Training (GET).
At the end of the term, they will travel to their academic year host universities.
Allison Wheeler, GET coordinator and co-grant writer, said the overall goal for each of these Fellows is to increase their English proficiency skills in all areas so they have every language and expression tool needed to be successful in the next phase of the Humphrey Fellowship Program.
“Groups like the Humphrey Fellows are so unique because on the surface they’re just here for English training, but in reality, it is the first phase of their globally prestigious fellowship program, and we feel incredibly honored and humbled that Illinois gets to be their home for these few months,” Wheeler said.
An additional benefit of this program, Wheeler said, is that this small group has four months to also integrate into American society and the U.S. higher education system before beginning their program. To assist with that transition, GET staff coordinate cultural and professional development activities to supplement their program.
“Based on the successes of our previous cohort, they will be ready to confidently take the next steps of their fellowship journey by the end of the long-term English program at Illinois,” Wheeler said.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship is a Fulbright exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and administered through a cooperative agreement with the Institute for International Education (IIE).
More than 6,000 individuals from 163 countries have participated in the Humphrey Fellowship Program since its inception in 1978. The program celebrated its 45th anniversary during the 2023-2024 academic year.
“These are medical doctors, human rights lawyers, journalists… these are highly motivated and accomplished people who have made a leap like leaving their home country for the first time, in some cases, and we get to see them at a very special moment in their lives,” Wheeler said.
Although Wheeler said the overall goal of the program at Illinois is to help the fellows increase their English proficiency skills in all areas, a second goal trails not far behind.
“Our goal in this long-term English program is to help them express their dreams, visions, etc. and seeing where they get to go (after IEI) is great,” Wheeler said.
Analicia Haynes is the storyteller and social media specialist for Global Communications in Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.