Cold Spring Harbor Educator Earns Foreign Policy Association Award

COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY — Dr. Michael Andrews, a social studies teacher at Cold Spring Harbor Central School District Jr./Sr. High School and head coach of the speech and debate team, earned the Foreign Policy Association’s Judith L. Biggs Award for Excellence in Teaching, the school district announced.

"The district congratulates Dr. Andrews on this very prestigious honor and commendation," the district wrote.

Between June 26 and June 30, Andrews met with 20 other master teachers selected from 12 states across the country, Canada and Mexico, U.N. diplomats, foreign policy experts and eminent professors at the 2023 Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions Teaching Training Institute in New York City.

For 105 years, the Foreign Policy Association has served as a catalyst for developing awareness, understanding, and informed opinions on U.S. foreign policy and global issues.

The Judith Biggs Great Decisions Teacher Training Institute, founded in 2004, aims to adapt
the FPA’s Great Decisions discussion-based learning model to a classroom setting. The core
mission of the Teacher Training Institute is to bring together committed educators to discover new and effective ways to teach current global issues.

During the weeklong institute, these distinguished teachers shared the best pedagogical practices as well as foreign policy and historical insights with the guest speakers and with one another. Some of the major topics discussed included the War in Ukraine, Climate Migration, Global Health, Politics in Latin America, China and Taiwan, Iran at a Crossroads, and Economic Warfare.

The discussions were held at various locations including Bernard Baruch College of the City of New York, the Permanent Mission of Monaco to the United Nations and the Delegates Dining Room of the United Nations Headquarters.

Andrews shared that among the highlights of the week was meeting Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, during a dinner co-sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association and the New York Democracy Forum; Consul General to the U.N. Euy Whan Kim of the Republic of Korea at the United Nations and other master teachers from throughout North America.