Igniting Your Personal and Professional Growth

Describe one or two, specific learning experiences from your fellowship. In words, show us this experience and explain why it was powerful.

The feeling of being in places where such evil occurred is one of the learning experiences that will impact my life and my classroom instruction. If you didn't know what Cape Coast Castle was, you might consider it a beautiful place. It is quite amazing, the sound of large waves crashing up against a white castle and the smell of ocean breeze. However, when you move into the dungeons, places that saw tens of thousands of innocent souls be taken from their home, it sheds a new light on the world.

What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn professionally?

I learned that working and living day-to-day in the United States can make you take things for granted. People in Ghana are some of the nicest people I have ever met, even though they are much less fortunate than me when it comes to economic situations. I have learned to be much nicer to people, no matter what is going on in my life. I learned to be gracious to have a job being able to teach students about the world and have opportunities to see the places I teach about.

What were some unplanned or unexpected experiences or outcomes of your fellowship? Or, how did the fellowship you crafted differ from the actual learning experience?

Everything went as expected for the most part. One thing I did notice was that tourism is not a large part of Ghana at all. I was shocked that I was the only American at Cape Coast on the two days I visited. This is one of the most important locations we still have connected to the Atlantic Slave Trade and no one is visiting. It shows that the history of this part of the world still needs to be introduced to most people from the West.

Impacting Your Classroom, School and Community

Outline specific plans you have to implement your fellowship and reach your student goals.

Starting in the Spring 2023 semester, we should be able to implement the entirety of the Triangular Trade unit into our classrooms. We will have all content uploaded on YouTube and available to download from website links. We hope the combination of videos, primary sources, and our experience can lead to a complete understanding of all the hard to teach parts of Triangular Trade.

What is one way you can leverage your fellowship to create one authentic learning experience for students? (e.g. hands-on learning, projects, community engagement)

I hope to be able to bring a few contacts a made, one in Ghana and another in Virginia, into my classroom via video call. These people would definitely have information that can add depth to the lessons and allow students to talk with someone who is from a complete different part of the world than them.

How, specifically, will your fellowship extend beyond your classroom? (e.g. families, school-at-large, afterschool groups, surrounding community, colleagues, etc.)

My fellowship has already impacted my family, my father joined me for a few days in Africa during my time in Ghana. It was his first time visiting Africa and made a huge impact on him. Teachers have been approaching my colleague and I about how to do a grant of their own. Excitement to see what grants are available to teachers has started at my school and hopefully continues to occur. I have been stopped by dozens of people since returning from the community intrigued about the fellowship.