A Valparaiso High School music teacher will visit European sites that inspired great composers, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment.

Miguel Rosario-Vega also will study with the Indianapolis Symphony music director and attend a conducting academy. He is one of several area educators to be recognized with Teacher Creativity fellowships announced last week.

Rosario-Vega was one of nine Hoosier teachers selected as "distinguished fellows," whose districts are eligible for separate grants up to $25,000 to hire a substitute teacher if necessary.

Rosario-Vega will spend several weeks in Europe during the summer of 2008 researching performance practices of Renaissance and classical composers.

"As a music teacher, I'm ashamed I have never been to Europe," Rosario-Vega said. Seeing the cities and countryside that inspired great musicians will make him a more effective teacher, he said. He also plans to create a video archive of his travels for the Valparaiso Community Schools Web site.

Another 120 Indiana educators received $8,000 grants for study and renewal activities over the summer.

Northwest Indiana recipients of the awards plan to study the underground railroad, British prime ministers, the Galapagos Islands, kayak construction, painting and photography as well as undertake train travel in Europe and river travel on U.S. waterways.

More than 1,800 Indiana educators have received Teacher Creativity Fellowship grants since the program's inception in 1987.

Area educators win Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity grants

$25,000 "distinguished fellow" recipient

Valparaiso High School

Miguel Rosario-Vega

$8,000 grant recipients

Valparaiso, Northview Elementary School

Kim Hommes

Portage High School

Robert Parker

Merrillville, Clifford Pierce Middle School

Maryann Foster

Lake Station, Central Elementary School

Juan Hernandez

Lowell, Lake Prairie Elementary School

Jill Sayers

St. John, Kolling Elementary School

Janice Hines

Wheatfield, Kankakee Valley High School

Michael McKay

Demotte, Lincoln Elementary School

James Holmes