Excellent experience at the Excellence Center

I came to the Excellence Center in Halle, Germany as part of my Fund For Teachers fellowship, an educational grant that allowed me to create my own learning opportunity. I was seeking the stories of refugees to share with my students in an effort to personalize the realities of so many people across the world. The Center reflected all the ways we should approach one another, with welcome and respect in every greeting, email, gathering, lesson and presentation. It is a global community of volunteers and staff learning together and from one another. In group language lessons and one on one tutoring sessions, over breakfast, during a football game or activity, there were many opportunities to hear the stories of Serbia, Syria, Ukraine, and Palestine. I am honored to carry these stories to my students, to share the struggles and the joys, the strength, compassion and hopefully to build empathy for our global community. The Excellence Center made it possible for me to step into the lives of others for a short time and walk away with a lifetime experience. I want my students to understand that statistics do not tell the story of immigration. People do. By providing meaningful access to immigrant stories I hope my students will experience the common bonds that unite humanity despite our differences. Perhaps they will be inspired by the resilience demonstrated in the lives of immigrants as well as deepen their understanding of worldviews and the events around difficult, controversial times in history, I want to begin with the human story and be mindful of the real-world connections as this difficult historical moment may echo or have shaped the lives of my students as well.