WALDORF, Md. – Lisa Landrum-May, an English teacher, has been selected to participate in two National Endowment of Humanities summer institutes. Through the institutes Landrum-May will be able to engage in discussions and gain insights into the study of the humanities.
“It will benefit my work as an English teacher because it will help me continue teaching using the interdisciplinary approach,” she said. “These institutes will provide background knowledge I will use when teaching various novels to my English students.” At Westlake, Landrum-May also teaches Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies, which is new to CCPS, and both institutes will aid her in teaching the curriculum.
Landrum-May was also selected as a Fulbright Specialist in the Fulbright Specialist Program. The program allows for U.S. academics and professionals to take part in two-to-six-week project-based exchanges at host institutions around the world. Landrum-May’s area of expertise is education. She has not been assigned a project yet but will be on the roster for the next three years.
“I was intrigued by the program,” she said. “It will allow me to give back and learn more internationally since I will travel outside of the U.S. Moreover, it will benefit me because it will give me more experience working with different cultures.”
Nelcy Avila, a Spanish teacher and the World Language department chair at Westlake, has been selected to participate in a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program, a program through the U.S. Department of Education which promotes, improves and develops modern foreign language training and area studies programs for all levels of American education.
Avila will participate in the Partners in Education: Working Together to Enhance the Teaching of Latin America — Peru, 2024, funded through the Department of Education and Towson University. While in Peru from to June to August, she will help create and implement curriculum with 15 other world language teachers and university professors.
Signing up for the program appealed to Avila. “I wanted to be a part of a team who builds a cross-disciplinary curriculum aimed at elevating the voices of various communities in Peru,” she said.
Avila is interested in learning more about Peruvians and their culture.
“Studying in Peru for the first time would permit me to learn from a wide range of Peruvians: educators, Afro-Peruvians, indigenous and migrants from the Andres,” Avila said. “Through unearthing historical and societal dimensions, my hope is to understand the fluidity of culture and the representation of identities in the Andean region.”
