the ordinary miracles of my extraordinary life the us
TRANSCRIPT
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 1/7
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
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 2/7
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 3/7
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
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 4/7
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
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 5/7
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
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 6/7
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
8/3/2019 The Ordinary Miracles of My Extraordinary Life the US
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-ordinary-miracles-of-my-extraordinary-life-the-us 7/7
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