The European Commission was recently awarded a $125,000 grant to the Cornell Institute for European Studies, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and the New York State Center for Rural Schools, as part of the “Getting to Know Europe” community outreach grant. The grant will support a series of activities and events from Jan. 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011 that will seek to educate central New Yorker’s about the European Union.

The events will focus on spreading awareness about three major topics, including “the European Union’s rural regions and cultures, the 2004 and 2007 enlargement states of Central and Eastern Europe and the history and culture of the Roma people,” according to a University statement.

The CIES will lead the project with the MEC and NYSCRS, providing additional funding and support for the events. Some of the events will likely include after-school language and culture classes for K-12 students, teacher training workshops, a speaker series at the University organized by the MEC, and a Central European Film Festival at Cornell Cinema for college students and the general community, according to Catherine Perkins, CIES outreach coordinator.

“This grant will help CIES in myriad ways, which in turn benefits the Einaudi Center. More specifically, our ongoing Foreign Policy Initiative will be significantly [enhanced] by this funding, [which will] allow us to organize additional events,” said Prof. Fred Logevall, history and director of the MEC.

The funds will be used towards creating and sustaining several other initiatives as well.

As part of its goal to provide educational activities for K-12 students, the funds will help CIES create a three-way correspondence program between middle school students at an upstate New York, Polish, and Slovakian school, beginning in Jan. 2012. The grant will also be used toward supporting a current after-school language program –– currently offering Turkish and Polish –– for second and third graders in Trumansburg, New York.

Perkins said that the programs will give students the opportunity to learn more about each others’ cultures.

“[Using the funding from the European Commission], we plan to offer more languages, [and] maybe identify another school such as Dryden Elementary School [to host another after-school language program],” Perkins said. 

The grant will also be used to publish an article series in Edible Finger Lakes magazine –– titled Edible Europe –– which will discuss agricultural and food practices of central New York and countries of the European Union, said Prof. Sydney Van Morgan, sociology, who is the associate director of the CIES.

“[Through these activities,] we are looking [to] make connections between rural upstate New York and rural communities [within the European Union]. [Some examples include] agricultural practices, heritage, [as well as] the local food movement here and in Europe,” Perkins said. 

CIES previously received a grant in 2007 to plan events focusing on the language and culture of Greece, which helped stimulate an interest in European culture and history among Central New Yorkers.

“[Following use of the grant from 2007], we [have] definitely noticed a big increase in inquiries from schools that wanted to know what kind of resources we have [for education regarding European culture and history]. There’s a lot of potential to increase that knowledge [with this grant],” Perkins said.