Eligibility requirements:

• Applicants must be employed full-time as an educator of social studies or STEM subjects in the Unites States or Canada.
• Applicants must submit a letter from their supervisor confirming their employment status as a full-time social studies or STEM educator in good standing.
• Eligible educator roles include classroom teachers (grades K-12), general education/elementary educators, university methods professors, curriculum coordinators, and administrators.
• Applicants who feel they qualify as a social studies or STEM educator but do not fall within the aforementioned eligible roles should contact TOP directly.
• Instructional coaches, librarians, teaching assistants, part-time teachers, or teachers of subjects other than social studies and STEM are not eligible to apply at this time.
• TOP Alumni are noteligible to re-apply.

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TOP will not offer a study tour for STEM educators in 2026. We hope to offer STEM tours again in the future. If you would like to be informed about future STEM opportunities, please email top@goethe.de.

TOP study tour programs provide immersive insights into the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of contemporary Germany and the European Union. In Germany, TOP Fellows engage in meaningful dialogue with educators and students, subject-matter experts, government officials, business representatives, community leaders, historical time witnesses, and many others.

Each study tour is designed based on the primary areas of interest of the selected participants, as submitted in their applications. Please consider this when completing the study tour topics section of the application. Possible topics include:

• Civic / Democracy Education
• Economics / Trade
• Education System
• European Union
• German Division and Reunification
• Immigration / Refugees / Integration
• Media Competence / Literacy
• Memory Culture / Holocaust Education
• Political Parties / Coalitions
• Security / Military Alliances
• Social Issues
• Subnational Cooperation
• Sustainability / Renewable Energies
• Transatlantic Partnerships / Alliances
• Vocational Education (VET/CTE)

Each study tour is designed based on the primary topics of interest submitted by the selected participants during the application process. Itineraries are therefore not established until after participants have been selected and are usually available approximately four (4) weeks before depature.

It is intended that each study tour group will visit Berlin in 2026.

Thanks to the support of its public and private partners, TOP's study tours are fully funded.

TOP covers the follwing costs for participants:

• Roundtrip airfare to/from Germany
• Ground transportation in Germany (trains, busses, public transit)
• Accommodations in Germany – each participant will have their own hotel room
• Two meals per day: breakfast and one group meal (either lunch or dinner)
• Entrance fees for group visits to museums, historical sites, city tours, etc.
• Resources and materials for your classroom

Participants will be responsible for their own airline baggage fees when incurred; transportation fees (metro, taxi, ride sharing, etc.) from the airport to the hotel in Germany; incidental hotel costs; and any passport/visa renewal fees that may be required for the participant to travel to Germany. TOP recommends that each participant budget $350.00 USD for one (1) meal per day and any personal expenses during the study tour.

A refundable deposit is required upon acceptance. The deposit amount for 2026 participants is $350.00 USD. This deposit will be refunded upon successful completion of the participant’s post-tour requirements.

Note: TOP study tours are subject to 2026 budget approval and safe travel conditions for participants, hosts, and employees.

Participants should be prepared for a full, fast-paced program. International travel can be mentally and physically challening, whether alone or in a group, so please consider the following points when deciding if a TOP study tour is right for you.

• There is little free time in the program and participants are with the group of 16 other people for the entire day, so alone time is also limited.
• Flight times to Germany are typically about 8-9 hours from the east coast and 14-15 hours from the West Coast.
• While in Germany, groups travel primarily with public transportation - train, subway, bus, etc. - and on foot, walking  typically 10-20,000+ steps a day. Punctuality is paramount, so walking briskly is sometimes necessary.
• Participants are responsible for carrying their own luggage, which typically weighs 50-70 pounds (23-32 kilograms), and should be prepared to carry luggage up several flights of stairs and on and off of trains during the tour. 
• The weather in Germany can vary widely in the summer, from cool and rainy to hot and humid. Air conditioning is not common in Germany.

Please consider whether you are physically able to meet these travel challenges and consult with your physician if needed before applying.
 

Participants should keep in mind that this is a group study tour designed for their professional development. The majority of their time in Germany will be spent with the group and the scheduled daily program will typically be from morning until evening. Participants are required to participate in all scheduled group meetings and activities. Some free time will be built into the schedule, but will likely not be more than two (2) half days or one full day.

No. All meetings during the study tour will either be conducted in English or will be translated from German to English by an interpreter.

Prior to the study tours, TOP will offer participants a 60-90 minute "German for Travelers" language session led by a professional German language instructor from the Goethe-Institut.

Applications must be submitted through the Goethe Application Portal (GAP) by Sunday, February 1, 2026.

The TOP study tour application requires personal and professional contact information, travel availability, topic of interest selection, resumé upload, employment verification (your direct supervisor must upload a letter), and three essays:

1. Professional Statement of Purpose
2. Personal Statement
3. Lesson Plan (select from a list of 15 topics, see below)
   • Civic / Democracy Education
   • Economics / Trade
   • Education System
   • European Union
   • German Division and Reunification
   • Immigration / Refugees / Integration
   • Media Competence / Literacy
   • Memory Culture / Holocaust Education
   • Political Parties / Coalitions
   • Security / Military Alliances
   • Social Issues
   • Subnational Cooperation
   • Sustainability / Renewable Energies
   • Transatlantic Partnerships / Alliances
   • Vocational Education (VET/CTE)

The application grading rubric is heavily weighted towards essays 1 and 3 above!

All information submitted to TOP is subject to strict German and EU privacy laws.

 

As part of the selection process, TOP must verify that each applicant is eligible for the program.

You will need to coordinate with your direct supervisor to submit an “Employment Verification Letter" confirming your employment status as a full-time social studies educator who is in good standing and that you will maintain this status throughout the 2026/2027 school year (barring unforseen circumstances, such as budget cuts, etc.)

You can download instructions for your supervisor using the link in the application on the “Employment Verification Letter” page. In the application you will need to submit the name and email address of your direct supervisor. They will receive an automated email with a unique link that they must use to access the system and upload the letter.

We recommend discussing the letter and sharing the instructions with your direct supervisor before entering their information into the application system, so that they can be looking for the automated email when it comes through. They should add gap-no-reply@goethe.de to their list of safe senders to avoid the email being blocked. 

You cannot submit your application until your direct supervisor has submitted their letter for you. You will be able to see in the system once the employment verification letter has been uploaded but you will be unable to read/access the letter itself.

Based on the feedback of successful applicants, the process takes an average of 5-10 hours. This excludes the time required to obtain the employment verification letter from the direct supervisor.

No.

While AI can be a helpful tool to brainstorm in preparation for writing, TOP will not accept applications with essays and lesson plans that are copied and pasted from AI platforms. The essay questions are designed to get to know you and hear personal examples from your career and your classroom experiences.

Applicants will be informed about the status of their application (accepted, waitlisted, not accepted) by April 2026.

If you are having an issue with the Goethe Application Portal (GAP), please send an email directly to top@goethe.de rather than submitting a help request through the portal. 

The most common issue: Emails from the Goethe-Institut Application Portal (GAP) are not being received by applicants or by their direct supervisors who are trying to submit an employment verification letter.

This issue occurs because the recipient's email server is blocking emails from the "@goethe.de" domain.

• Potential solution: ask your supervisor to check their SPAM inbox. If emails are not there, they should add "gap-no-reply@goethe.de" and/or emails from the "@goethe.de" domain to their "safe senders" list. Then resend the request from your application in the GAP system.
• Potential solution: ask your supervisor if you can send the email to a different address such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc. Enter the new address into your application in the GAP system and click on the "resend request" button.

You can resend the automated email or change the recipient's email address at any time from the "Employment Verification Letter" page of your application.

No, TOP Alumni (educators who have traveled to Germany with TOP in the past) may not apply to travel again. Each educator may only be awarded one TOP Fellowship. 

TOP has lots of offerings for our Alumni to stay connected with the program and to continue learning and teaching about Germany! If you are not already receiving our Alumni Newsletter/Emails, please update your contact information with us using our TOP Alumni Update Form.
 

We ask that all TOP Fellows come prepared, ready to assume the role of a student and willing to consider new ideas, to proactively engage themselves, to be inquisitive, to be flexible, and to learn as professionals during a fun, yet mentally and sometimes physically intense experience in Germany.

To adequately prepare participants for their study tour, we ask for participation in pre-departure webinars that are important for enhancing background knowledge, setting the stage, and providing a foundation for group cohesion. We also require that participants complete pre-departure reading assignments and a survey.

Upon returning from Germany, every participant is required to 1) author an original inquiry-based lesson about contemporary Germany to use in their social studies classroom, 2) conduct one professional development workshop about TOP for other social studies educators, and 3) complete one multiplier activity to share their experience with their wider educator community. They will also complete a post-tour survey.

TOP offers lesson plan templates and workshop materials and resources to support fellows with their post-tour requirements.

You are not required to have a valid passport as part of the TOP study tour application process. However, we do reccomend that you begin the process of obtaining a passport as soon as possible in order to avoid processing delays, should you be accepted.

If accepted, you MUST have a valid passport (and non-U.S. and non-Canadian participants may also need to obtain a visa) in order to travel to Germany.

Accepted applicants will be informed in the spring, but often this is still a tight timeline for obtaining a vailid passport. Starting the process now will make things less stressful later, should you be accepted.

This policy, also known as the "deviation policy" in travel agency terms, remains dependent on the contractual arrangements made between TOP, its travel agency, and the air carrier providing the service. It also remains dependent on the capacity of TOP personnel to make such arrangements in a manner that is fair to all participants.

The deviation policy for the 2026 study tours will be announced to successful applicants in the acceptance documentation in the spring of 2026.