Global Experience
My global experiences have made a profound impact on my teaching style. Each and every experience has played a significant role in the development of my character, cultural awareness, educational techniques, and empathy towards varying types of societies and backgrounds.
My global experiences span across 5 continents and 17 countries. I have spent the most extensive time in Italy and Turkey. Other countries that I have spent time exploring are as follows: Belize, Morocco, France, Slovenia, Germany, Hungry, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Algeria, Budapest, Jamaica, and Brazil.
My global experiences span across 5 continents and 17 countries. I have spent the most extensive time in Italy and Turkey. Other countries that I have spent time exploring are as follows: Belize, Morocco, France, Slovenia, Germany, Hungry, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Algeria, Budapest, Jamaica, and Brazil.
ItalyDuring my first study abroad experience in Italy, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with high school students. I lived in Paderno Del Grappa, Italy. This is a small town that is about an hour train ride north of Venice. My study abroad campus was a Consortium of Iowa University that was hosted on a private high school campus. Since my small group of study abroad students lived on the campus for three months, we had many opportunities to interact with the high school students that attended school there. I volunteered to work with these students after school to improve their english skills. This was my first experience working with students abroad.
Turkey |
My Turkey study abroad took place in Istanbul with the North Carolina State University system. The program was primarily Masters students with the exception of four undergraduates, including myself. While taking political science classes for two days out of the week, I spent the remainder of my week working with the Government's Health Department in their Disabilities Services branch. Part of my time was spent researching fundraising and marketing ideas for the centers, but the other part of the time was spent with campers attending the disabilities summer camp. I use the term disabilities, because this is how Istanbul characterizes their disabled citizens. It was only in the past few years that any citizen with any type of disability was legally recognized and provided rights within Turkey's constitution. The Disability Services applied to a broad range of citizens including those who were physically disabled such as wheelchair bound, mentally disabled such as autism or schizophrenia, and/or physical impairments such as deaf or blind persons. As you can see, there is still much work to be done, but there are plenty of efforts in process.
Brazil
The primary focus of my time spent in Brazil was for teaching middle grades students. The students attended an English Language School called the International School of Curitiba. During my time outside of the classroom, I attended language classes to learn Portuguese. After learning bits and pieces of so many languages, I have to admit that Portuguese gave me the biggest run for my money! I also had the opportunity to tour many classrooms in varying parts of Brazil. While my school was incredibly equipped with state-of-the-art technology and every student having their own iPad to use during class; I was also able to see classrooms that could only afford one table or share a limited number of desks. This opened my eyes to the impact that a teacher can make. It did not matter if the classroom had every needed material or no materials at all, the teacher and the students worked together to conquer the subject and learn from one another.
Education: Lighting the way to the future.