Huntley High School teachers chosen for Fulbright trip to Philippines

HUNTLEY – Two Huntley High School teachers have been selected to travel to the Philippines as part of a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad trip sponsored by Northern Illinois University.

Global studies teachers Anne Sharkey, 29, and Clay Henricksen, 25, will join four other high school teachers and six community college instructors for a monthlong immersion program led by NIU anthropology professor Susan Russell.

The course, titled “The Philippines: Ethno-Religious Diversity and Human Rights in a Transitioning Democracy,” will take them to several parts of the country and pair them with mentors at Philippine Normal University in Manila, the country’s national center for teacher training.

The trip will take place from June 20 to July 20 and be paid for by the U.S. Department of Education. Sharkey and Henricksen will spend two weeks in the capital, Manila, as well as two weeks in more rural regions of Luzon, the Philippines’ principal island.

As part of their coursework, Sharkey and Henricksen will be tweeting and blogging their experiences in real time.

They also are required to develop four lesson plans that focus on either Filipino history, culture, current events or human rights issues. The goal of the project is to allow educators to experience Filipino society and culture firsthand, and to bring the experiences back to the classroom.

The trip will put them in close contact with a foreign culture, something that Henricksen says he is looking forward to.

“We get to stay with families,” said Henricksen. “I see that as exciting and terrifying. It’s never easy to go into someone else’s house, especially in a foreign country.”

Sharkey, meanwhile, says she will relish the opportunity to step back from teaching and become a learner again.

“I’m looking forward to going with a group of educators and becoming students again,” said Sharkey, who just finished her seventh year of teaching at Huntley High School. An English and French speaker, Sharkey also is eager to take on the challenge of learning another language conversationally.

“I’m super curious about learning the language,” she said. “We’re not just touring. We really get to learn what’s going on.”

While the Fulbright-Hays trip is a new experience for the teachers, both are seasoned travelers, having undertaken 24 international visits between them. Asked about the benefits of traveling abroad, Henricksen said, “It gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I think you can’t get that unless you experience a place or a culture. Not just a picture of it.”

“There’s a lot of connection to the United States in many ways, and you can see the global impact that you couldn’t do by staying in Huntley or wherever you’re from,” he said.

To prepare for their trip to the Philippines, Sharkey and Henricksen attended an orientation session in March, where they were introduced to the basics of Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines. Since then, they’ve had extra help from one of their students, sophomore Megan Laferlita, whose family relocated from the Philippines to the Huntley area.

So how are they doing?

“I think Ms. Sharkey is going to be fine,” Laferlita said. “Mr. Henricksen has to work on his accent.”

Fortunately, there’s still a month left to nail the dialect.