June 26, 2025

In just over a week, I’ll join 18 other educators from across the U.S. as we fly from our respective home airports, meet in Paris, and then head onward to New Delhi, India. It’s hard to believe that our field experience is finally (almost) here.

This journey began nearly a year ago, in fall 2024, with a semester-long online course focused on global education. In February 2025, we gathered in Washington, D.C. for a symposium where we heard from program alumni and participated in workshops designed to prepare us for our time abroad.

At that point, I was slated to travel to Morocco. I’d been assigned to Marrakesh along with fellow participants Cori Cauble and Holly Kolarova. Together, we held regular meetings with our kind and generous host teacher, Fatima, and even hosted a group Zoom call that brought our three classes—and Fatima’s—together across time zones and continents. We were deeply excited for what lay ahead.

Then, just two weeks before departure, came the devastating news: our program in Morocco had been canceled due to a pause in State Department funding. Though the trip was ultimately canceled, I’m grateful to have been connected with Cori, Holly, and Fatima, and remain optimistic that we will have opportunities for collaboration in the future.

Thankfully, we were given the chance to be reassigned to alternate TGC destinations. I learned in late March that I’d be heading to India. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of re-preparation: exploring Indian history, culture, and education through IREX’s curated materials; reading new books (including Pages Stained with Blood by Indira Goswami—a lucid and painful fictional account of the events surrounding Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom); meeting my new travel cohort and host teacher; and reshaping lesson plans and introductory presentations for a new school setting.

I’m excited to now be traveling to Kolkata alongside Olivia McKeller (The Global Village Project School) and Kim Warren (Utah International Charter School—who, serendipitously, was also my partner for an online interschool activity back in the fall). We’ll be hosted by the buoyant and energetic Ms. Sharmila Sengupta, Headmistress of Barisha Janakalyan Vidyapith for Girls (H.S.), a government-sponsored school serving students in grades 5–12.

As we finalize presentations, brainstorm student activities, and plan a workshop for English teachers in the community, I’ve also been reflecting on a recent professional development experience: a workshop hosted by the South, Southeast, and West Asia (SSEWA) Outreach Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, titled Vietnam Through Time: Teaching the History, Culture, and Transformation of a Nation.

Over the course of three days, we learned from individuals with deep, lived expertise of Việt Nam. The stories and materials we encountered foregrounded what R.C. Lutz (2022) describes as the “dynamic interactions and enduring complexities of regional identities in Southeast Asia.”

In synthesizing this experience, I keep returning to a quote shared by one of the lecturers—my colleague at Watershed School, Dr. Joie Lê:

“Don’t get comfortable sitting in one story.”

As educators, we choose what narratives and perspectives our students encounter. It’s our responsibility to ensure those narratives are diverse. This idea—of refusing comfort in a single story—is something I hope to carry with me throughout my time in India, and something that will guide how I reflect, teach, and grow from the experience.

In the coming weeks, I’m excited to share reflections and photos from the field. Stay tuned.

Comments, questions? Drop me a line at the email below.