Sequoyah High Teacher Earns Prestigious Fulbright Award

CHEROKEE COUNTY, GA — A Cherokee County School District teacher has won a prestigious Fulbright award.

Sequoyah High School English teacher Elaine Dasher has been selected by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to receive a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Grant. She is one of only 76 teachers nationwide to earn the award this year.

Recipients are selected based on their academic and professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential.

“Fulbright is synonymous with excellence in education, as is Ms. Dasher,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower said. “We’re so proud of this achievement and know she will gain important knowledge to share both in her classroom and with her colleagues.”

The year-long professional development opportunity offers recipients the opportunity “to develop skills to prepare students for a competitive global economy” through professional development and international field experience. Dasher will attend the Global Education Symposium in Washington, D.C., in January, travel next summer to a country to be determined and produce a capstone project.

Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, “designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” according to the State Department. Prominent Fulbright alumni include Nobel Peace Prize recipients, Presidential Medal of Freedom winners and Nobel Laureates.

Dasher is a highly regarded Advanced Placement English teacher, who is regularly selected by the College Board to serve as an AP Reader and score the challenging exams’ essay responses from students around the country. She serves as the school’s Senior Capstone Career Project coordinator and helps coach Sequoyah’s award-winning Literary Team.

Dasher earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s degree in English education, both from the University of Georgia. In 2014, she was one of only 16 educators nationwide selected to receive the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship grant.

She will be recognized by the Cherokee County School Board and Hightower at the School Board’s September meeting.