Presented byJulie AhernJuly 25, 2013

ROTARY FOUNDATION EXPERIENCES

YOU SHOULD BE A TEACHER!

Growing up my grandmother shared incredible stories about teaching in a one room school house in Norway, Iowa. It was her responsibility to light the fire every morning and greet the children of all ages waving a large school bell in the air. A lot has changed since then….

During high school I worked at a local restaurant as a waitress and enjoyed the experience.

A high school counselor told me about University of Wisconsin-Stout and it’s Hotel and Restaurant major, so off I went!

During my senior year I decided I’d rather work in the back of the house rather than the front, so applied to NIU-Dekalb to begin a Masters program in Marketing and Finance.

GOING A DIFFERENT PATH!

I was very excited to be hired as a graduate teaching assistant in the management department. There were 4 of us, all from diff erent countries, hired to keep offi ce hours and grade papers. This quickly changed!

My fi rst experiences with teaching were unexpected and dramatic to say the least…The professor takes a leave of absence and the four of us are asked to teach the course!

After the initial shock wore off , I really enjoyed teaching 200+ young freshman Basic Management 101 students. :-D

GRADUATE TEACHER ASSISTANT

After a long day of teaching, going to two classes I planned on going to the library to finish a paper due the next day. However, for some reason I decided to go back to my apartment instead.

I just made the city bus, a ride that would change the course of my life… There was a newspaper on the bus seat and I saw an ad stating, “study abroad, all expenses paid!” However the meeting was that night –so I just stayed on the bus and returned to campus!

A CHANCE BUS RIDE CHANGED MY LIFE

Twenty or so young people showed up to the fi rst meeting. We learned that the Dekalb Rotary Club was sponsoring a Foundation Scholarship to study abroad for one year.

We were told that the application experience would take up to a year and involve numerous interviews and applications to be completed.

Some attendees walked out after hearing this news…

ROTARY FOUNDATION APPLICATION EXPERIENCE

After a full year of interviews and applications the happy news arrived in the mail that I would receive a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to study Tourism at the University of Surrey-England.

Rotary member Tony Jenkins met me at Heathrow Airport.

A member was assigned to watch over me each month and provide an outing/adventures: meeting royalty,

galas at castles, family meals, Christmas with the University president!

THE NEWS ARRIVES IN THE MAIL…

GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL AND UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

MORE ABOUT GUILDFORD AND UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

GUILDFORD, HIGH STREET

GUILDFORD

Princess Diana visits the Royal Surrey School for the Blind

Please click the link above to see the visit where a Rotary member arranged for me to see Princess Diana!

INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES BEGIN!

REGIONAL AND WEST END THEATRE

Theatre experiences were incredible with a regional theatre in Guildford. As students we saw scores of quality productions before they hit the West End. Such stars as: Anthony Hopkins, Rex Harrison, Diana Rigg, Deborah Kerr, Ian Carmichael, Tim Curry, Richard Harris, Rupert Evert, Alan Bates…

Let me tell you about my Richard Harris and John Malkovich experiences!

PAVAROTTI SINGS IN HYDE PARK

Hyde Park suffered major storm damage and Pavarotti performed a benefit concert for all. It rained….no one seemed to mind! Please click link below to see a song from the concert I attended.Nessun Dorma -Turnadot

STUDENT TRAVEL CARDS ARE THE TICKET!

Countries Visited:

England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Greece, and

Liechtenstein!!

Reluctantly, I headed home after fours years abroad as the Home Offi ce would not renew my student visa anymore…

Once home I took on odd jobs as I looked for something in my field. Then I saw an ad to substitute teach in my hometown.

It turned into something that I really and truly enjoyed doing. A friend told me of a fast track teacher license option and in one year I received my teaching certificate. I ended up getting a job teaching at Andrew Cooke Magnet School of the Fine Arts.

HOME TO THE STATES ALMOST FOUR YEARS LATER!

ANDREW COOKE MAGNET SCHOOL OF THE FINE ARTS

COOKE PARENT/COOKE TEACHERDAUGHTERS –SOPHIE AND EMMA

First contest eff ort was with collecting signatures/autographs for a school year for Sharpie School supplies. What happened with this contest was incredible!! We won nine $5,000 school supply packages!!

Since the Sharpie win my passion has been completing other contests and going after grants for our students. We have received: technology, materials, author visits, cash funds, and so much more. Six years later my running total is $111,089. My current mission is to pass on these skills to other teachers.

AND SO IT BEGINS WITHGRANTS AND CONTESTS!

My current DonorsChoose project! link

Next Jump supports Cooke DonorsChoose projects! Short fi lm

DONORSCHOOSE.ORG

USING MY MARKETING BACKGROUND

ABC Cooke School Pepsi CommercialLinks to commercials made about our school!NBC Cooke School Pepsi commercial

Eight students of mine have wonnational contests in the last 3 years, including author visits from Mike Thaler and Dav Pilkey. Love their talent!!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS…

Gabriela won two contests. What a talented student she is!! (bottom left)

Pentel had a contest for students to write their representatives about school concerns. Jazzmyn won this national contest and $2,000 worth of school supplies. Our class invited our state rep. to hear the letter read and she came for a visit! (bottom right)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

-My daughters met one of their favorite authors, Mike Thaler. Cooke student Henry’s amazing artistic talents won our school two author visits. The secondvisit was from the wildly popular Captain Underpants author, Dav Pilkey.

-Congressman Dold sponsored a Community Leadership Award. It was a greathonor to be one of the finalist.

Please consider supporting my current DonorsChoose project with a small donation (link below). DonorsChoose is an excellent opportunity to directly impact students in a classroom!

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/chase-learning-about-civil-rights-in-ou/1008842/

Chase: Learning About Civil Rights In Our Classroom! Part 2

Mrs. Ahern's Technology project at Andrew Cooke Magnet Elem Sch in Waukegan, IL | High Poverty

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