Fellowships

Governor’s Teaching Fellows

The Governor’s Teaching Fellows (GTF) Program was established in 1995 by Governor Zell Miller (1991-1999) to provide Georgia’s higher education faculty with expanded opportunities for developing important teaching skills. The goal of the GTF Program is to address faculty members’ need to understand and use emerging technologies and instructional tools that are changing the landscape of teaching and learning in higher education. The Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education hosts the program which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025.

The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program is designed for full-time faculty members who teach at accredited public or private colleges or universities in the state of Georgia. Any full-time faculty member regardless of rank or tenure-status may apply. Please note that preference is given to faculty who primarily teach undergraduate students. Faculty at the University of Georgia and at Georgia’s technical colleges are not eligible to apply. 

Fellows are selected based on:

• Commitment to undergraduate teaching – e.g., how they have improved their teaching practices and how they would like to enhance their teaching and professional development.
• Academic leadership – e.g., their experience in leading initiatives, mentoring faculty or students, developing programs, or contributing to institutional change.
• A letter of support from their institution’s Provost of Academic Affairs. (The GS Faculty Center will be responsible for obtaining this letter.)

Institutions may submit only TWO candidates for the Academic-Year Program, and ONE for the May Symposium. Please note that two applicants from the same institution are rarely accepted for either program.

Deadline: December 10, 2025

Applications will include:

• A statement explaining your interest in attending either the Academic Year Program or the May Symposium (300-word maximum)
• A teaching statement with concrete examples of how your teaching is innovative and how you hope to improve it (300-word maximum).
• A description of your academic leadership, e.g., your experience leading initiatives, mentoring faculty or students, developing programs, or contributing to institutional change (300-word maximum).
• Your Project Proposal: (required for Academic Year Program only) A concise description of the course you propose to design or redesign during the academic year. Fellows will reap the greatest benefit from the program by designing or redesigning a course to use some of the strategies, tools, and ideas presented in the monthly workshops (300-word maximum).
• Your current CV.

*We recommend that you prepare and combine these materials in the order listed above into a single PDF before you begin the online application. Please include the appropriate heading for each section.

Click on the button below to apply to be the Georgia Southern Representative in the Governor’s Teaching Fellows.

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2026 May Symposium

Program Dates: May 18-22, 2026

Fellows attend an intense one-week seminar on the University of Georgia campus. Daily sessions are held in Meigs Hall in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education. The symposium includes a combination of structured faculty development, classroom activities, experimentation with new technologies, and some project-based learning. The topic changes every year. 

The 2026 Symposium will examine “Where Generative AI Skills and Human Essential Skills Meet in Higher Ed.” Generative AI is becoming more common in higher ed, and society is increasingly looking to AI as the answer. At the other end of the spectrum are those who urge us to keep the human in the loop, reminding us that teaching and learning are still highly personalized and humanistic experiences. Faculty need to find the space where essential human skills meet AI to make the most of both approaches in their teaching and learning. 

The interlocking goals of the Symposium are to give Fellows dedicated time

1. to explore well-known and lesser-known generative AI tools and strategies with an eye towards understanding which will best complement their personal teaching practice, their discipline, and their students’ learning and
    
2. to strengthen the human-centered aspects of their teaching and help build their students’ skills as critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and valued team members.

In today’s classrooms, AI-infused teaching and human-centered teaching need not be in competition with one another. Rather, they can meet in a place that has the potential to spark creativity and to construct effective new modes of teaching and learning. The May Symposium will help faculty explore that space.

The 16 Fellows receive hotel accommodations for five nights, breakfast at the hotel, catered lunches in Meigs Hall, and a modest per diem stipend for dinners. The program does not cover transportation costs. 

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The Academic Year Program

Over the course of the academic year, a cohort of 16 Fellows attend six unique three-day workshops while also undertaking a course design/redesign project. The highly interactive seminars, which are held in Meigs Hall in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education on the University of Georgia campus, focus on teaching tools and practices, emerging technologies in teaching, research on teaching and learning, as well as faculty development and leadership. Every year, the Fellows focus on course design and work intensely on a course they frequently teach or a new course. The Fellows receive hotel accommodations for two nights, breakfast at the hotel, one catered lunch in Meigs Hall, and a modest per diem stipend for two dinners. The program does not cover transportation costs. Sample Agenda.

2026-2027 Academic Year Program Dates

• September 2-4, 2026
• October 7-9, 2026
• November 4-6, 2026
• February 3-5, 2027
• March 3-5, 2027
• April 7-9, 2027

Recipients

Last updated: 11/7/2025