Edu-leaders

Vandana Suryawanshi, a teacher of Maharashtra, has got an honour to be the first foreigner chosen for the US Space Foundation's elite 2012 Flight of Teacher Liaisons programme. Vandana, a middle school teacher in Vidya Valley School in Pune, has been teaching biology, earth science and general science for two decades.

She would join the 19 other outstanding American educators who were selected for their active promotion of space and science education by the Space Foundation. This is for the first time when an international teacher has been selected for the prestigious fellowship of the Space Foundation.

The new flight of Teacher Liaisons will serve as advocates for space-themed education across the curriculum and will use Space Foundation-provided training and resources to further integrate space principles into the classroom.

The highly regarded Space Foundation Teacher Liaison programme has more than 270 active participants. The teachers are selected by a panel comprising experienced Teacher Liaisons and representatives from the space industry and the military. The 2012 Teacher Liaisons will be publicly recognized at the Space Foundation's 28th National Space Symposium, which is being held April 16-19 at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado.