Licking County Foundation Awards 2019 Tibbie Leslie Travel Grants
Three Area Teachers Will Travel the World in 2019
The Governing Committee of the Licking County Foundation recently approved $6,000 in Tibbie Leslie Travel Grants for travel across Italy, Scotland and Ireland for three area educators. These grants were awarded to teachers who plan foreign travel to broaden their experience and knowledge in their particular field of interest. They were also selected for their commitment to bringing the world back to their classrooms in the true spirit of the award’s donor, Tibbie Leslie—a Newark native who traveled the world throughout her 30-year teaching career. Since 1999, the Tibbie Leslie Fund has provided over $181,000 in grants to support 94 travel experiences. This year’s grant recipients are:
Leona Vrbanac
School District: Newark City Schools
School: Newark High School
Courses Being Taught: Family and Consumer Sciences
Primary Travel Destination: Italy
Classroom Benefit: As a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, this trip will help Ms. Vrbanac to expand her cooking skills, particularly with Italian ancient grains, in order to more effectively lead her classes and expand the culinary dishes that she prepares with her students. This knowledge will allow her to teach her students the importance of nutritional, sustainable food and to provide them with the skills to prepare fresh, affordable meals. Ms. Vrbanac stated, “Not only would I be learning during the baking sessions, but I would be watching an experienced baker teach the craft of her trade. I could learn much from the class set up, organization and execution. I enjoy bringing the smells, sounds, and flavor of the world into the classroom for the students to experience.”
Amy Hicks
School District: Newark City Schools
School: Newark High School
Courses Being Taught: Algebra 1, Financial Algebra
Primary Travel Destination: Italy and the Mediterranean
Classroom Benefit: Ms. Hicks plans to use her trip to emphasize the importance of budgeting and saving for retirement in her lessons. In addition, this trip will allow her to learn more about the economies of Italy, Greece and Croatia first hand and to pass on her knowledge about the differences between European economies and U.S. economies to her students. Ms. Hicks stated, “I hope that practical lessons about saving and investing your money so it can be spent on things that you truly enjoy later in life will resonate with my students.”
Amy Shuppe
School District: Southwest Licking Local School District
School: Watkins Middle School
Courses Being Taught: 7th grade honors and regular Language Arts
Primary Travel Destination: Scotland and Ireland
Classroom Benefit: As a middle school language arts teacher, Ms. Shuppe plans to use her trip to bring back first-hand knowledge, pictures and literature to share with her students in order to provide rich context to the topics and authors that they study in class. In addition, she will create presentation showcasing the information that she learned while travelling. She plans to share this presentation with the other 7th grade language arts teachers. Through this collaboration, she will be able to share her experience and expertise with the entire 7th grade class at Watkins Middle School. Ms. Shuppe stated, “I feel that through utilizing these real life resources it makes the students more aware of the world around them and bring the world to our small community.”
