Don Quixote "Follow Your Dream" Fellowships 2025GrantIn-Person

When teachers are inspired, students benefit. The Don Quixote Fellowships support idealistic, romantic, creative, impractical, adventurous projects born of teachers’ passions.

Projects can, but need not, be related to classroom practice: a science teacher might study Inuit poetry in Alaska or a pre-K teacher might carve a fifteen-foot marble sculpture. We are looking for applicants who use ingenuity in planning an original experience.

Applications with budgets between $1,000 and $5,000 will be considered.

The Don Quixote Fellowship is open to Fellows of The Academy for Teachers who have completed at least five years of teaching in a pre-K–12 classroom setting and who intend to remain in education for the foreseeable future.

We do not fund family vacations, classroom projects, fees for most professional development programs, or tuition for college classes.

• Application deadline: January 12, 2025
• Winners announced: March 2025

Projects must start after June 15, 2025, and end by September 1, 2025. Recipients will be asked to submit photos and a brief written report at the conclusion of their experience.

The following materials are required:

Résumé

No longer than one page. List teaching and relevant work experience, educational background, and honors and awards, as well as hobbies, interests, and skills.

Project Narrative

No longer than one thousand words. Include:

1. Project title.

2. Fifty-word summary.

3. Rationale for the project, describing why it is important to you.

4. A detailed timeline of activities (when, where, how, and with whom).

Budget

List all expenses in an Excel spreadsheet. Provide sources and explain how you arrived at each amount. (In most cases, the grant will be subject to federal income tax. Please include this tax liability as a line item.) Financial reporting instructions will be sent to grant recipients following the announcement of awards.

A sample budget and template are available here.

Letters of Recommendation

Please arrange for two letters of recommendation, each to be emailed as an attachment from the recommender directly to don-quixote@academyforteachers.org. One letter must come from an educator colleague. Effective letters of recommendation reflect the writer’s familiarity with both the applicant and the proposed project. Letters must be received by the January 12th deadline.