GSE Student Named Fulbright Fellow

April 14, 2009 - Christopher N. Steel, a student in GSE's Mid-Career program and the director of Curriculum, Instruction, & Technology at the Emerson Schools (NJ), has been named a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow by the United States Department of State. The Comisión Fulbright del Ecuador in Ecuador and the presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board jointly selected Steel on the basis of his academic and career achievements and leadership in the field.

Steel will continue his work in developing educational programs at Centro Educativo Nuevo Mundo, a PreK-12 school and social services agency near Guayaquil. He will also conduct research on the various educational access and equity issues affecting the region's school-age population. 

Steel has also been recognized as an Emerging Leader by Phi Delta Kappan International, a leading association of education professionals. PDK's selection criteria for the honor is based on outstanding professional accomplishments early in one's career.

A former middle and high school teacher, principal, and district administrator, Steel began his education career working in community development at a network of schools in rural Ecuador. In that capacity, he taught elementary school, co-directed an early childhood education center for at-risk children, and assisted in expanding several successful educational partnerships with Ecuadorian and stateside corporations. 

He returned to the U.S. to join the Emerson staff, first as a middle school science teacher and later, as a member of the district administrative staff.  He is a published author who has written on the role of technology in schools, instructional media design, and teacher recruitment and retention.

Media contact:  Jill DiSanto-Haines at 215-898-4820 or https://www.gse.upenn.edu/node/add/jdisanto@upenn.edu