Transatlantic Futures for German as a Foreign Language: 2027 Cohort Recruitment

Become the next generation of leadership for German education in the United States.

An Invitation to Lead

The TaF-DaF Expert Seminar convened twenty of the most accomplished educators, researchers, and institution-builders in the field of German education — from across the United States and Europe — in Boston in the summer of 2026. They spent two days answering a single question:

What does German uniquely prepare students, institutions, and societies to do — and how do we build the ecosystem that makes that possible for everyone?

They left Boston with a framework, a set of commitments, and a clear-eyed vision for what German education can become. Now they are looking for the people who will carry that work forward.

The TaF-DaF Innovation Fellows Program 2027 is an invitation to twenty K–12 German educators from across the United States to step into a new role: not just teachers of German, but builders of the profession's future.

What Is the Innovation Fellows Program?

The Innovation Fellows Program is a year-long professional development experience designed for early-career K–12 German educators who are ready to lead beyond their classroom. Fellows are selected not because they have arrived — but because they are at the inflection point where the right investment, the right network, and the right challenge will make the most difference.

This is not a scholarship. It is not a conference. It is a sustained, structured commitment — from AATG, from the 2026 Boston cohort, and from each Fellow — to building a stronger, more equitable, and more enduring profession.

What Fellows Receive

What You Receive	What It Means for You
Goethe-Institut Professional Development Trip to Germany (Summer 2027)	A grant-supported immersive experience in Germany to deepen your professional knowledge and expand your transatlantic network. Participants will be able to select from a number of programs to best suit their needs and time frame.
AATG Annual Conference, Madison, WI (September 2027)	Grant-funded attendance and presentation at the AATG national conference, where Fellows are introduced to the broader profession.
Access to the Boston 2026 Network	Direct connection to twenty of the most influential voices in German education — researchers, institution-builders, and K–12 leaders who serve as your support infrastructure across the year.
Structured Mentorship	A dedicated mentor from the 2026 cohort, matched to your program context and career stage, who will meet with you individually, help you navigate challenges, and co-develop a concrete action plan.
Transatlantic Resource Guidance	Two facilitated sessions — fall and spring — walking you through grants, exchange programs, professional development resources, and European partnerships relevant to your context.
Institutional Strategy Support	A one-on-one consultation with a Boston group expert within your first 90 days, focused on making your program stronger, more visible, and harder to cut.
Peer Cohort	A national community of nineteen other Fellows — educators at your career stage, from every region of the country, who become colleagues, collaborators, and long-term professional friends.
Conference Platform	Support and expectation to present your work at local, regional, national, and international conferences across the fellowship year and beyond.
Professional Portrait	A formal profile capturing your teaching philosophy, trajectory, and goals, shared across the TaF-DaF network as a model of the profession's future.

What Fellows Work On

The 2026 Boston cohort worked across four themes that together define the future of German education in the United States. Each Fellow will be connected to one of these four streams — receiving support from the Boston group experts who developed it, and contributing their own experience back to the collective.

1. Unlocking Transatlantic Resources

Navigating and activating the full landscape of professional development, grants, exchange programs, and partnerships — and contributing to a genuine two-way transatlantic exchange.

2. Building Programs Administrators Cannot Close

Developing the institutional skills, outward-facing partnerships, and storytelling strategies that make German programs indispensable — and applying them in your own school or district.

3. Future-Proofing the German Teaching Profession

Serving as a proof of concept for what the German educator of 2035 looks like — and contributing to the recruitment, preparation, and pipeline work that ensures the profession exists for the next generation.

4. Who Gets to Learn German?

Engaging seriously with the question of access in your own program: who is currently in your German classroom, who is not, and what it would take to change that.

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for the 2026–27 cohort.

✓	Requirement
✓	U.S. citizen or permanent resident currently living in the United States.
✓	K–12 educator of German in the relatively early stages of your career. Approximately 3–10 years of experience. Past the survival stage, not yet in a senior leadership role.
✓	Able to travel to Germany and return to the United States during the summer of 2027. 1200 Euro in travel funding provided through the grant. Valid travel documentation required. Course costs are covered by the grant.
✓	Able to attend the AATG Annual Conference in Madison, WI in September 2027. 1000 Euro in funding for conference registration and travel provided through the grant.
✓	Committed to remaining in the education profession for the next 15 or more years.
✓	Interested in developing as a leader in the field and giving back to the profession.
✓	Willing to mentor and be mentored in the field of German education over the next several years.

What Fellows Commit To

The Innovation Fellows Program asks something real in return. Fellows are not passive recipients of support — they are active members of a professional network that depends on their energy, honesty, and ambition.

Remain active in K–12 German education for a minimum of 15 years
Travel to Germany during the summer of 2027 and attend the AATG Annual Conference in Madison, WI in September 2027 (both funded through the grant, see above for funding amounts)
Present at local, regional, national, and/or international conferences during and after the fellowship year
Engage in mentorship — as someone who is mentored now, and as someone who mentors others over time
Engage fully with their mentor, their peer cohort, and their theme stream — contributing insights, not only receiving support
Apply the frameworks and resources developed by the Boston 2026 cohort in their own program and report back honestly on what works
Embody, in their professional practice, the vision that German education is strategic infrastructure — not a subject to be defended, but a gateway to be opened

We are not preserving German education. We are building the infrastructure that lets it grow.

Who We Are Looking For

The 2027 cohort should represent the geographic, programmatic, and demographic breadth of German education in the United States. We are looking for twenty educators who, with the right support at the right moment, become the next generation of leaders the profession needs.

Selection Criterion	What We Are Looking For
Career Stage	Early-career but established: approximately 3–10 years of experience. Past the survival stage, not yet in a senior leadership role.
Level Taught	K–12 educators across the full spectrum: elementary immersion, middle school, and high school. The cohort should not cluster at the secondary level alone.
Geographic Spread	Distributed across U.S. regions — Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, West — and ideally including at least one rural or small-district context.
Program Context	A mix of well-resourced and under-resourced settings, urban and suburban schools, large districts and small — including educators building programs from scratch alongside those sustaining established ones.
Demonstrated Leadership	Evidence of thinking beyond their classroom: chapter involvement, mentoring, curriculum work, community partnerships, exchange participation, or creative program-building.
Commitment to Equity	Active engagement with who gets access to German in their context — through recruitment, advocacy, inclusive pedagogy, or outreach into underrepresented communities.
Coachability	Openness to input, willingness to reflect and adapt, and the disposition to both learn from and contribute to peers. Fellows bring energy to the network — they do not simply receive from it.

Why This Matters Now

German education is not a subject under threat. It is strategic infrastructure — a gateway into the systems, partnerships, and ways of thinking that will shape the next generation of democratic, economic, and civic life.

Language is not a soft skill. It is the infrastructure of peace. When you reach across difference using someone else's language — not with a translator, but with your own voice — something changes. Walls come down. Assumptions get questioned. The most durable forms of international cooperation have always been built by people who could think and communicate across linguistic and cultural difference.

The Boston 2026 cohort came together to stop asking "Why German?" and start answering a different question: what does German uniquely prepare students, institutions, and societies to do? The Innovation Fellows of 2027 are the next part of that answer.

Language is not a soft skill. It is the infrastructure of peace. That is what we teach every day. That is why this matters now.

How to Apply

The TaF-DaF Innovation Fellows Program accepts self-nominations only. This is a deliberate choice: we are looking for educators who are ready to step forward on their own initiative — not those who were nudged by someone else. Members of the 2026 Boston cohort may encourage colleagues to apply, but the application must come from the applicant themselves.

Applications for 2027 open in fall 2026. To apply, complete the Innovation Fellows Application below which includes:

An eligibility confirmation checklist
Basic professional information
Five written questions (one to two paragraphs each; the full application should not exceed three pages)
A theme preference selection
A signed commitment statement

There is no separate letter of recommendation or external nomination required. The application is yours to make — and yours alone.

Apply Here

Applications are accepted until October 1, 2026.

Questions? Contact Project Director Blake Peters at blake@aatg.org or visit the TaF-DaF program page.

Das Projekt wird durch das Transatlantik-Programm der Bundesrepublik Deutschland aus Mitteln des European Recovery Program (ERP) des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Energie gefördert.

This project is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).