In the summer of 2011, the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh took 12 educators to Europe for one week.  While abroad, the teachers visited Brussels and Vienna, thanks to a generous grant from the European Union.

When funding opportunities avail themselves, the Council organizes travel abroad opportunities for a small group of teachers to meet with policy experts and officials and to learn more about the country and issues first hand. 

Thanks to a generous grant from the European Union, the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh organized a two-week study tour to Europe from June 27 to July 10, 2009. The tour provided local educators with an opportunity to experience first-hand the history and culture of France, Belgium, Austria and Slovakia.

In 2007, the Council offered four fellowships to educators for a Summer Study Tour to Turkey, made possible through a generous grant from the Turkish Cultural Foundation. These fellowships enabled four educators at the pre-collegiate level to participate in a two-week study tour to Turkey during July 25 - August 10, 2007.

In 2004, seven high school teachers — accompanied by an education reporter from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review — took a week-long trip to Brussels to focus on European integration and transatlantic relations.  This opportunity was possible in cooperation with the Center for West European Studies and European Union Center at the University of Pittsburgh, through a grant from the European Commission.

The World Affairs Council has also facilitated local teacher participation in funded travel opportunities to Egypt and Ghana.

When I teach about the European Union I can now bring credibility into my classroom.  Sitting in the European Commission and the European Parliament, I can now give my students a picture of what operations go on there and they can compare that to their own government.

- Chip Krol, Social Studies Chair, South Side Area High School

The Turkey Summer Study Tour enriched my teaching in more ways that can be explained... I got to SEE how the layers of cultures intertwined, reacted and encountered each other. I have key ‘snapshots’  to share that go beyond what the 20 years of history books has tried to impart to me. For this I am forever grateful as an educator and as a student of life.

- Victoria Robins, Social Studies Teacher, Fox Chapel Area High School