Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement

Mohammad Shahed Ali is an educator with 16 years of high school teaching experience in Bangladesh. Currently, he is the director of international affairs for the GEIST International Foundation (Global Educators Initiative for Sustainable Transformation), an international exchange alumni association that develops programs and initiatives to overcome the long-standing problematic factors that constrain the wheel of development. He is also an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for the English Access Microscholarship Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State.

Mohammad previously worked for the British Council as a school ambassador and maintains a lifelong passion for helping younger generations become equipped with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to make the world a better place. He authored a book, The Real America, that detailed his experience during his exchange year in the United States. The book has helped a number of students, teachers, and community members better understand the impact and values of exchange programs.

In 2009, he established the “Eco Club,” designed for students to create awareness and reflect on nature. He also worked as a facilitator to promote massive open online courses (MOOC) in his community supported by the American Center in Dhaka.

Mohammad is a 2014 alumnus of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) in the United States.

Bob Fest has twenty years of experience in teaching high school environmental science and biology. He taught in both public and private schools in city and rural communities. Currently, he is a teaching faculty member at George School, a private Quaker boarding and day high school located on a rural campus in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. At George School, he teaches international baccalaureate environmental systems and societies, George School field studies, and intensive biology. Bob will also teach an East African Wildlife Conservation as a field study course in Uganda in January 2023. At George School, Bob serves on the Environmental Stewardship Oversight Committee and the Service Learning Oversight Committee. Additionally, he is also on the board of directors of the Mtaala Foundation, a grassroots NGO that works to provide quality education and healthcare opportunities to Uganda’s most at-risk students.

Prior to George School, Bob was the director of STEM initiatives and program facilitator of the Tiger Woods Learning Center at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School in North Philadelphia. While at Cristo Rey, he and his students developed a multi-media Sumatran tiger conservation advocacy program in partnership with the Philadelphia Zoo.

Bob is a 2011 alumnus of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program and the International Leaders in Education Program in Medan, Indonesia. In Medan, he worked in schools to share best teaching practices in environmental science and biology with Sumatran teacher peers and regional education administrators. Bob has also supported and led education and environmental projects in Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Costa Rica, Kenya, Japan, Ghana, and Ecuador. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Salisbury University and his master’s degree in biology from the University of Nebraska.