Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2009: Shortlist Announced
Monday, 23rd November 2009
Cactus is thrilled to announce Sara Harllee as one of the shortlisted entries for the 2009 Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship.
The entries were assessed by a panel of three judges against the following criteria: content and structure, originality, language and accuracy, relevance to the scholarship theme and overall impression. All of those shortlisted have won a Cactus Online TEFL Course.
You can read Sara’s entry in full below. To read the winning and other shortlisted entries please click here.
Sara Harllee
Six weeks in Italy
As I look out over my balcony at this magnificent country, I reflect of the magic that has been the past six weeks. I reflect over my many experiences here, my new compendium of teaching knowledge and wisdom, the wonderful people I have met, and my new language, Italian. I have fit in seamlessly here in Italy, the native language flowing off my tongue, and I cannot envision a better journey. Even my CELTA teaching sessions, which I approached with great trepidation, went fantastically and formed the perfect foundation for my future classes. Words simply do not do justice to beauty, passion, and perfection I have known here in Italy.
My eyes come back to focus as I am now choking with laughter. The lack of sleep and general state of brewing expectation has, once again, produced mental sappiness of a horrifying degree. After completing my voodoo dance of normalcy, and laughing until my stomach hurts, I grab my mug of tea, stare past my bedroom curtain, which bravely tries to pretend it is a door, and try to focus my mind again. However, I am distracted by the hysterical realities that I have a curtain masquerading as a door, my salvaged computer desk would cramp a midget, my bed creaks like a dying duck, and my computer screen is out of focus…again.
I sit here and wonder if I have lost my mind. I comfort myself with the encouraging thought that I won’t know it if I really have. Please do not ask why this is comforting. Comfort is just something one has to take as it comes. Shifting from the non-profit arts industry to teaching is enough to make my head spin. It is a good thing I like carnival rides, or life might not seem like so much fun. I think of my linguistics, articulation, and speech classes in college and the sorrow I felt when I could not find a plausible excuse to explain why I wanted to major in linguistics. I think of the elementary teaching classes I have taken, which brings up dreadful memories that are best left in the past. I think most importantly about how much I love people, languages, different cultures, and different places, and how, for the first time, I have found a place where these loves make sense and are celebrated. Well, they are at least tolerated and laughed about with good humor, which is almost as good. I would much rather laugh than make sense anyways.
Language is a door to other worlds, places and people. It is also a door that can stub your toe or slam in your face when used incorrectly, so please open with care and be sure not to smack anyone on the other side. Teaching English as a second language thrills me to a level so deep I begin to doubt my sanity. The prospect of learning the nitty-gritty of pronouns and gerunds, the ins and outs of how my deliciously botched native language is learned, and why so many people hate grammar is exhilarating. Of course, I must first deflate my dreamy bubble of ecstasy and find a real way to make this happen. I have thought out a plan and decided that maybe, given the current economy, saving for thirty years in order to afford a quality TEFL education program is not too much to bear. By that point, I will be so old perhaps a CELTA program will give me a senior’s discount. Another option is to sell off the belongings I have left, given that I have already sold much in an attempt to get myself closer to TEFL certification and free myself from unnecessary items that would burden travel. Of course, when I consider the chances that anyone would want what I have left, I think I would have a better chance of sailing the Atlantic on a goat. But, like the crazy life paths that brought me to the TEFL industry in the first place, an equally crazy path brought me to the Cactus TEFL website, and so, in a mad dash of hope, my mind turns to Italy.
Italy. It is the country that now holds my glimmer of possibility and potential, adventurous confetti burst in the future. It could also be the best behind kicking of a lifetime, but those things often are the same and I have found both equally enjoyable. Of course, the first things that come to mind are the Rick Steves films I have drooled over, pizza made with whole fish slapped onto giant pieces of bread, crazed students mumbling teaching techniques, nights of frantic lesson planning, and bedrooms with real doors. I am excited by the mere fact that Italian is similar enough to Spanish that I know when someone is saying they are in love. Of course, unless someone pledges his or her undying love to me or I am asked to be a new TV Love Doctor sensation, this will not come in very handy. At times my mind turns to imagining the different ways I can get lost walking from my lodgings to the learning center, of which I have counted twenty so far, how long I can go without sleep, and if I can make as many fantastic language blunders as I did with Spanish, some of which would either make your toes curl or come in handy in a brothel. I think of the amazing people I would be bound to meet, the stories to last a lifetime, and the tools to teach someone right; I think of all the crazy, wonderful, and embarrassment inducing things that make life’s journeys worth the while. Lastly, I think of my life, curtain and all, and the career path I am fighting to make a reality. And I hope that, maybe, through some weird twist of fate, Italy will get me there.
Once again, my out of focus computer screen brings me back home. Staring with blurry eyes down the hall, I realize I do not know how the future will play itself out, if I will ever see Italy, or if my backside will ever cease being numb after the hours in my highly un-ergonomic chair. I also realize, in a moment of frightening clarity, that drinking too much tea has a rather undeniable effect, which is something I think is most handy to remember in a classroom situation. However, I know that regardless of what it takes, whether a thirty-year wait or on the back of a goat, I will find my way to teach English as a second language, legally of course. And hopefully, in the end, I will find that somewhere along this journey there is some magic left for me.
Tags: teacher development course, scholarship, sff2009, suzanne furstner scholarship, tefl, english
Posted by Michelle Curtis 2009-11 under Cactus TEFL, Cactus News,
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