the ordinary miracles of my extraordinary life the us

8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US

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THE ORDINARY MIRACLES OF MY EXTRAORDINARY LIFE THE US

Extraordinary miracles usually happen in the most ordinary opportunities. I was very

fortunate to be given a chance to be one of the fellows in the 2011 International Leaders in

Education Program (ILEP) sponsored by the US Department of State through the International

Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). The Philippine-American Educational Foundation(PAEF) administers it, which is also the Fulbright Commission in the Philippines. The 2011

ILEP is the coming together of 76 educators from 17 countries covering four continents and

collaborating with five university cohorts in five different US states. On January 4, 2011, I was

one of those thousands of Filipinos who boarded an international flight bound for the northern

hemisphere. The only difference is that I was on a J-1 visa and entering the US because of my

profession as a teacher, looking

forward to a university life rather

than going with the usual flow of

brain drain or as a labor resource

export. Out of the more or less 50

national applicants, I was one the

twenty blessed finalists who qualifiedfor the interview and TOEFL test (Test

of English as a Foreign Language).

From the final 20 Filipinos who

competed against hundreds of ILEP

candidates I made it to the final seven

who represented the Philippines and

as one of the three fellows who were

assigned to Clemson University in

Clemson, South Carolina.

It was a tough chance to enter Clemson U because it requires the highest TOEFL score amongthe five university cohorts and because Clemson is known for science and engineering giving it

the reputation as one of the hardest public universities to get into. But the toughness of its

reputation and requirements is as gentle as the warmth of hospitality that I encountered-the

other side of the American culture that is totally contrary to what we know based on print and

non-print media. The entirety of my stay in the US is truly an unusual experience of everyday

ordinary miracles and extraordinary encounter with ordinary wonders of being a Filipino,

being a teacher, a human person, what it means to be a professional, how it is to be respected

and be acknowledged as a social being. Our batch is the third from the Philippines, but the ILEP

is already on its fifth year. Its objectives are to bring together international teachers to

understand the American education and culture; facilitate exchange of educational trends to

mutually enrich each other’s educational and cultural systems, and to develop leaders ineducation. The ILEP program is divided into three major legs. The first three days is an opening

program at Washington DC where we met the IREX staff, initiated the what would be

international circle of friends, and got acquainted with the core values of the “real ” American

culture. As a prelude to the coming intellectual adventure, we were introduced to the concepts

of Service Learning and Citizen Diplomacy as educational trends and approaches to

curriculum and instructional design.

2011 ILEP Fellows in front of US Capitol Building in Washington DC



We also had a one-day ILEP conference for this class where other professors presented their

research work on Teacher Observation and Supervision, Social Justice, Reflective Teaching,

Photovoice, Inquiry Model, and the Upstate Writing Project . We received another

tremendous amount of material to apply and share. Our assessment class with Dr. Debbie

Switzer was a different approach to learning about educational evaluation. It was originally an

undergraduate course but there are many realizations that I gathered that are quite needed torefine current practices in testing and measurement.

Perhaps the toughest one, next to the ILEP Seminar class, is the International and Comparative

Education with Dr. Megan Che. It was indeed what it means to be a graduate student in the US.

There are pages and chapters to read each week that I felt the number of pages increase every

week and the complexity of ideas get harder every time the class meet. A reflection paper-

synthesis had to be written for every reading assignment which we submit on-line the day

before the class and which Dr. Che scrutinizes and comments upon returning our papers before

starting the discussion. Unlike other professors who would just browse through paper, Dr. Che

really reads it line by line and writes her views on every point that she sees. The final project is

a scholarly paper, a sort of a research paper that would have substantial content for a journal

article. I worked on an analysis paper about teacher training with the title Implications of Pre- Service and In-Service Training of Science Teachers on the Effectiveness of Curriculum and

Student Achievement in Science. It was complete hard work but very rewarding. Intercultural

seminar sessions with Dr. Louis Bregger were also strategically scheduled during the semester.

On Wednesdays, with two full-week

straight during March and April, we were

stationed at Seneca High School where I

coordinated with Mr. Chris White a Physics

teacher and Science Coordinator. He was

my partner teacher for the entire semester

with whom I had many interestingconversations about our roles as science

teachers, as teaching supervisors, and as

mentors. I also had the chance to have

some discussion and observe classes with

Chris’s intern, John Michael Hammond.

Since I could not co-teach in Physics, Mr.

White arranged a schedule so that I can co-

teach with Ms. Amanda Gladys who handles

Biology class. My stay at Seneca High

School was another rewarding experience

because I was able to observe different classes of different subject areas, engage inconversations with different teachers, joined one Professional Learning Community session,attended faculty assembly and department meetings, as well as, attend Chris’s conference with

a parent and his post-conference with John Michael. Wednesday Seneca has been one of my

most anticipated days of the week. What is most surprising is that teenagers are quite the same

across colors and cultures.

With some of the students in Mr. Marcero’s chemistry class at Seneca High School where I had my internship



Our weekends are another series of

exciting events. The Clemson ILEP Steering

Committee, headed by Dr. Bill Fisk,

scheduled our committee meetings on

Mondays and school visits on Fridays. Co-

curricular trips were also scheduled fromFridays to Saturdays that they made sure

Sundays are free so that we could go to our

respective churches. I lived just a few

blocks from Saint Andrews Parish Church.

On chilly Sunday mornings, I usually take a

5-10 minute walk alone to attend the

Sunday Mass. I could never forget the

astonished face of my roommate Lia, when

I got home on the night of Ash Wednesday

with a blackened forehead nor would I ever

forget the hilarious uproar of the

parishioners when during the Easter Sunday mass, Fr. Jack joked about turning on thebasement sprinklers because he couldn’t reach us down there to sprinkle holy water.

We attended a conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches at Greenville followed by a short

trip to see how Downtown Greenville look like during winter. Aside from the Seneca High

School, that is part of the Oconee County, we were also able to visit high schools in other cities

such as Greenville and Spartanburg. We were also invited at Edwards Middle School, also in

Clemson where some of the fellows interned, and at Ravenel Elementary School. Other

weekends were short trips with other fellows, either on our own, with our community

partners, partner teachers, or some of our professors. During the spring break Dr. Margaret

Warner, in-charge of our co-curricular trips, brought us to Walhalla. Along with Dr. Spearman,

some of us even went twice to the Six Mile Wednesday market, and then to the spring jubileepicnic at Pendleton.

To unwind and to battle homesickness, we

went one our own riding the CAT bus to

Anderson, downtown Clemson, to Bi-Lo at

Old Greenville Hi-way and Ingles at

Highway 93. We even walked the long

stretch of Cherry and Perimeter Roads to

get to the South Carolina Botanical Garden.

The chilliness of winter and the cold winds

of the spring added to our excitement to thelong weekend trips to other cities. The

Clemson committee brought us to other

cities in South Carolina – Ashville,

Summerville, Charleston, and Columbia.

They also arranged interstate trips to

Hartwell and Atlanta in Georgia. My

community partners, Bob and Gayle

Reynolds, invited me for a Superbowl

My favorite picture with Lia and Dr. Fisk; the picture is quite blurred but the brilliance of our happiness is very clear

Taken during our lunch stop at Summerville, on our way to Charleston, SC L-R: Lia, Irah, Doaa, and Uday



dinner in Anderson – quite a culture at the end of professional football season, and a dinner at

their home and boat ride at Lake Hartwell, also in Anderson when spring got warmer. Bill

brought us to the orange and white football game in Clemson at the Death Valley stadium in the

campus. On one of the hottest days of Clemson spring, we attended the Poetry Night and then

the Food Festival which concluded the week-long International Week celebration in Clemson

University. Tuesday afternoon is always quality time with my faculty mentor, Dr. Michelle Cook.On one occasion, she invited me for lunch. Our time together was cut short because she gave

birth on March and was still on semi-maternity leave on my last weeks at Clemson.

Our last two weeks in Clemson was devoted

to the last weekend trips and almost

endless farewells and souvenir photo

sessions with the fellows. Every day that we

see each other, we count the days when we

finally return to Washington DC for the

closing program. As for my own, I did not

count the remaining days but counted the

times that I have been with the fellow,instead. Suddenly, as I walk along College

Avenue, I can’t help but think that almost

five months earlier, I was walking along

snow then it became concrete pavement

along green grass with thin layer of mist or

sleet, or snow melting at the tip of the

leaves. Eventually, the sun got brighter and

the angiosperms started to bloom –

dogwood, hostia, hydrangea, narcissus,

many others of different sizes and colors with the ever present squirrels and cardinals.

Occasionally, during our long walks along the Elm Street, groundhogs go out of their burrowsto stay warm under the sun - a sign that indeed winter is over and spring has come at last.

My last Sunday mass at Saint Andrews was

especially meaningful and quite more

sentimental than when I first came. The

simplicity of the Sunday mass makes the

religious service more solemn and the

prayer moments even more intense.

Perhaps, it would take a longer time for me

to get over the thought of missing our

Sunday services at Saint Andrews. It is quitean irony that for the entire length of our

stay in Clemson, I was able to trim down my

bare necessities, something perhaps that

most of you would not expect to happen in

the US. My backpack would only have my

laptop, a pen, a highlight marker, the book

or reading for the class, my Tiger1 ID, my

BB&T card, keys and small amount of

Our very first picture as a group along the steps by the right side of Tillman Hall overlooking the Bowman Field Front Row L-R: Irah, Lia, I, Isabel, and Ruth; Middle Row: Doaa, Kate,

Ruth, and Eduardo; Top Row: Ebo, Uday, Alaa, Houssam, and Sunil

A souvenir picture with Fr. Gregory West, JSL taken after the 10am mass, my last Sunday visit to Saint Andrews Parish [with Ruth from the Philippines and Eduardo, my Village Green

neighbor and ILEP from Brazil



money [money is even optional]. There is no need to have a cellphone or any other

accessories/gadgets that we usually have in our bags. There is no need to iron or even think

about if your clothes match together. The trip to the grocery or pharmacy [a pharmacy is also a

convenience store] is quite a breeze because the bus schedule is fixed and most importantly,

bus fare is free. What is most amazing in the university life is the liberty to have access to all the

resources of the Cooper Library, the convenience of printing our papers in the Barret Hall,attending the free computer trainings, other seminars and workshops in the university, and

making the most of our vacant time studying in the Tillman Hall Library.

On our last week in Clemson U, I participated as an informant in a semi-structured interview

for a research being conducted by the ILEP steering committee, Dr. Che (Megan as we fondly

call her) was assigned to be my interviewer. It was actually a discussion of almost everything

under the sun - about education: comparison of educational systems, instructional practices,

the concept of democracy, ideas on professional development, curriculum, and many others.

The topics were hot issues and the concerns were quite sensitive but it was an unusual way of

spending a casual friendly talk, yet I left Tillman Hall with learning much more than what I

actually contributed to the research data.

There was mixture of much jubilation and sadness among the fellows as we do the last of our

laundries, cleaning of the apartment, packing, unpacking, and weighing of our luggage. I spent

my last two days at Downtown Clemson where Lia and I, for the last time, scouted for souvenir

items and took photos of our last look of Tillman Hall. Our last hugs at the Greenville airport

was a scene of laughter and tears as each one of us wave our last goodbye to the Steering

Committee, silently praying that someday our paths would cross again.

When we arrived at Washington DC with

Dr. Fisk for the closing ceremonies, it was

automatic for us to look out for each other

or Dr. Fisk that we always forget that weare supposed to be seated by country

again instead of by university. Our last

three days in the US was devoted for the

presentation of our modules, orientation

on the grant application, and our last trips

around Washington DC. At the end of the

closing program each fellow was able to

bring home twelve new training modules,

along with access to materials for the grant

application and other training materials

made by previous fellows that areavailable on the e-portal which all ILEP alumni could have access to.

We arrived in the US as individual teachers coming with our own understanding about

education, equipped with our individual cultures and teaching repertoire. We are returning to

our respective countries with an overwhelming amount of knowledge, experience, and

materials to share. Each of us the same person but with an enriched, enlightened, even a

different point of view with an intercultural perspective about contemporary education. Our

greatest accomplishment, perhaps, is that we were able to build a strong foundation of

Waiting for “Hop -on, Hop- off” tour bus with other fellows

from Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Kenya, and the Philippines

at a bus stop along Connecticut Ave. in Washington DC



friendship, that we love each so much as a family, despite our differences in beliefs, color, race,

perspective, and views - that the tapestry of our diversity became the binding thread of our

unity .

The last day of the closing program at

Washington DC, for me, was my last chance tosay how grateful I am for having known 76

educators and having spent an entire semester

with 13 wonderful fellows and innumerable

number of South Carolina people who have

touched my life in different ways. Our endless

hugs, tears of goodbye, and streaks of laughter of

our last meal with Bill, together as a family of

various colors would be forever be kept in my

heart. On my very last day in the US, as I stay in

line for the airport security check, I once again

looked back and waved goodbye to Amy Ahearn

and Emily Longenecker, two IREX staff whobrought us to the Regan Airport. I look forward

to coming home but will always be praying at

night how am I to overcome the thought of not

having Lia, my Indonesian roommate, when I

wake up in the morning. Every time that I would

celebrate my birthday, I would tell myself, oh, it

was Bill’s birthday yesterday. As I look at the

faces of my students now, I look at them with

much more affection because each of them represents the American students whom I have also

loved as well. Each of the fellows that I have met and each of the people in Washington DC,

most especially the colleagues at Clemson who have become my family of friends, represent thedifferent seeds of goodness in a human person. Everything was beautiful and wonderful. As

Sarah Maclahlan sings, “life is like a gift wrapped up for you each day, just another ordinary

miracle today” .

Our last group picture in front of Tillman Hall

the ordinary miracles of my extraordinary life the us

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