The Value of Experiential Education
JOURNALISM ADVISER SAILS THE GALÁPAGOS AS A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LINDBLAD EXPEDITIONS GROSVENOR TEACHER FELLOW
By Adrienne Forgette
A t age 23 , Bruno della Chiesa sat as the only foreigner in an auditorium full of Egyptians in Cairo .
A speaker at the podium said , “ If you want to know what it means to be Egyptian , go to China , go to America , go to South America – go anywhere but here . To truly understand yourself and what it means to be from a place , you must go .”
Now a world-renowned professor at Harvard University , Dr . della Chiesa recounted this story to an audience at Harvard Graduate School of Education ’ s Future of Learning Institute . To understand our own culture , he explained , we must enter another one . A fish does not know water .
Dr . della Chiesa ’ s words were in my head when I applied for the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship , which celebrates excellence in geographic literacy by providing a once-ina-lifetime travel professional development