Science teachers swap roles as Fulbright scholars

Thomas Worthington science teacher Jason Cervenec will trade classrooms and lesson plans with a teacher from India this fall.

Cervenec is on his way this week to Mumbai, India, where he will teach science and biology at The Cathedral & John Connon School for the next five months.

Meanwhile, Vatsala Kaul, whose classroom Cervenec will teach, will take over his classes at Thomas Worthington for the first semester.

The two are participants in the Fulbright Program, an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and designed to increase understanding among people of the United States and other countries.

Established in 1946 by then-Senator J. William Fulbright, it has sent nearly 300,000 American "Fulbrighters" to other countries and brought more than 100,000 people from across the world to the United States to study, do research or teach in many fields.

The teacher exchange program chooses approximately 120 United States teachers each year to trade places with teachers from one of 10 countries.

Cervenec, 32, said he has for several years been considering applying for the program as a way to broaden his teaching skills. He was chosen on the basis of his application and interviews, and because a good match was found with Kaul, who teaches the same subjects.

"My goal is to keep my teaching fresh and I was looking for the next step," he said.

He hopes to have his beliefs about teaching challenged by a new system, and plans to bring back to his fellow Thomas teachers and students what he learns from the different culture and way of approaching education.

Cervenec and his Indian counterpart have been exchanging information since April. Since his students speak British English, there will be few language challenges, but he expects the cultural ones to be great.

He spent four days in Washington being prepared for the experience last week, and is excited to get to his adopted home, which will be an apartment in Mumbai, a city of 14-million people.

He knows that the private high school where he will teach has larger classrooms than those in Worthington, and there are fewer assignments.

He hopes to get to travel on weekends and to learn to speak some of the two languages spoken in Mumbai.

Cervenec has traveled to Europe three times, but this will be his first visit to India, and his first time living in a foreign land.

He has also been preparing Kaul, who will live in his Clintonville home as well as teach in his Worthington classroom. In a few weeks, her husband and son will join her here.

She will have a folder of information to start with and, more importantly, the support of a great group of colleagues at Thomas Worthington, Cervenec said.

They also expect to learn from her, and maybe even be influenced to take on a similar challenge.

"My goal would be we would have more teachers do this," he said.