Orangeburg educator selected as 2018 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow
June 22, 2017
Multifaceted yearlong learning journey to prepare Bessie Wright, students as global citizens
The NEA Foundation named Bessie Wright, a kindergarten educator at Marshall Elementary School in Orangeburg, as one of the 48 public school educators to become a member of this year’s class of Global Learning Fellows. Wright will spend a year building global competency skills (the capacity to understand and act on issues of global significance).
Bessie Wright also serves The South Carolina Education Association (The SCEA) as President of their Orangeburg District 5.
As a result of the Fellowship, Wright will be better equipped to prepare students for global citizenship. Fellows also create valuable global lesson plans for their students that are freely shared with educators across the nation and the world through open-source platforms.
“The Global Learning Fellowship will not only enhance my classroom,” says Wright. “It will also broaden my horizons to reach my children’s families and all of those that I may come in contact with.”
This class was selected from over 400 applicants from across the country. These new Fellows teach all grade levels – and all subjects: from visual and performing arts to agri-science, vocational studies to history. They come from rural, suburban, and urban schools. They are National Board Certified, curriculum coaches, IB coordinators, foreign language speakers, and more. Some have participated in similar programs, and some have never traveled abroad. The diverse cohort will allow educators to learn from each other and bring global perspectives to a wide range of students.
“We believe that educators are the key to giving students the skills to thrive in an interconnected world,” said Harriet Sanford, President and CEO of the NEA Foundation. “We created the Global Learning Fellowship to provide professional development in teaching global competencies and to support educators as they integrate these skills into classroom instruction.”
Over the course of a year, the NEA Foundation staff, partners, and field experts will support Wright as she immerses herself in online coursework, webinars, and collegial study, including a two-day professional development workshop this fall and a nine-day international field study next summer, bringing the full cohort together with experts in global learning.
Prior Fellows have contributed valuable knowledge to the field by posting replicable lesson plans on open-source platforms here and here. Past Fellows have returned to advance global competency in their schools and districts—one Fellow recently brought Peruvian artists to her school to teach her students how to incorporate their own culture into their art.
Get to know all of the 2018 NEA Foundation Learning Fellows by visiting neafoundation.org.
The NEA Foundation will accept applications for the 2019 Global Learning Fellowship this fall.
