Looking back: My first odyssey to Saipan was quite a trip

Maila! Again, I feel Saipan calling me. Maila! Come.

Whenever I mention that I was an exchange student to Saipan, the first question is predictable: Where is that?
I respond: Do you know where Guam is located? If the answer is yes, "where" is easy to address. If not, I fall back on references to Japan and the Philippines.

Often, the next question is: Why did you decide to go there?Easy answer: I didn't. Someone else, someone I've never met, made that decision.

While preparing to return again the island, I can't help but think back to my first odyssey decades ago.

I'd always been an explorer by nature, curious, wanting to see new, unfamiliar places, but, by age 16, I hadn't had opportunities to reach that far. That all began to change when posters beckoning students to apply for the AFS Americans Abroad Program grabbed my attention.

So I applied, not expecting it to actually lead anywhere, but, to my amazement, it did. Within a week or so after turning 17, I received notice that I was guaranteed a placement for the coming summer.

Wondering where weighed on my mind for the next several months. The biggest distraction during this waiting period was working on my high school's spring musical, "South Pacific," about American service people (I played a sailor called The Professor) on tropical Pacific islands. In hindsight, perhaps that was an omen.

In mid-May (a month before departure), the official word came. I was going to the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands ... Micronesia ... Saipan, Mariana Islands.

In those pre-Internet, pre-Google, pre-Wikipedia Dark Ages, information about such far-off places was tough to come by. I came across an article in an old National Geographic at the public library and a tourism guide to the South Pacific. Not much else.

When D-Day arrived that June, I embarked on my first commercial airplane trip, by myself, headed for orientation in Los Angeles.

The hotel was filled with teen-ager -- AFSers headed to Australia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. I soon learned that only three students -- Pam from Kansas, Susan from Virginia and me -- were going to Micronesia. And my two comrades were headed for Palau, while I alone was Saipan-bound.

In Los Angeles, I picked up another piece of information: We three were the very first American AFS students sent to Micronesia. We were pioneers -- in my mind, like the Apollo 11 astronauts landing on the moon for the first time.

To further heighten the adventure anxiety factor, we learned upon landing on Guam about a communications mix-up regarding our arrival date (a miscalculation involving the international dateline). Our arrival had been expected two days earlier. Original plans called for a one-day orientation on Guam, then heading to our host islands -- yesterday.

So plans had changed: The girls would have a day on Guam, awaiting the next flight to Palau. I was to depart for Saipan just a few hours after arriving on Guam -- barely enough time to freshen up and catch my breath.

Before the last leg of this journey, I learned that, because of the mix-up, I might not be met at the airport, and would have to locate a phone and call a four-digit number to get picked up.

So, yes, I was feeling rather anxious as the jet sped toward Saipan.

Then, I got my first glimpse of the island. I felt awed and overwhelmed.

But when the plane touched down on the jungle-shrouded runway, that feeling turned to terror. What I had gotten myself into?The "terminal" at Kobler Field ... a wood-frame, open-air structure ... looked nothing like the major airports I'd seen along the way.

Dazed and confused, I ambled behind other passengers toward the gate, completed my immigration forms, then stepped out into the unknown.

Fortunately, my fears of not being met didn't materialize. Getting a warm welcome and meeting my host father immediately eased my anxiety -- although I still felt dazed and confused.

My journey to Saipan had come to a successful conclusion, and the real adventure began.

Now, I'm ready for the next chapter in my Saipan saga to unfold. It's no longer a journey into the exotic unknown, but it's a homecoming, a renewal.

Making a case for the Global Education Achievement Certificate

(I have long been an advocate for international education and one of the architects of the Global Education Achievement Certificate policy adopted by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In this piece, I discuss the thinking behind the policy and why Wisconsin school districts should adopt it. This also has been posted on the Global Wisconsin blog.)

In a rare consensus, Wisconsin leaders in business, government, and education, among others, agree on the necessity of preparing students to become globally competent citizens – that is, citizens who have the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to live, work and interact in a diverse, interconnected world.

The Governor’s WITCO Task Force on International Education made that clear with its 1998 recommendations, as did the State Superintendent’s International Education Council in its 2005 report, Global Literacy for Wisconsin.

Increasingly, students are recognizing that acquiring global skills and knowledge can open doors to greater educational, career, and personal opportunities – and they want access to these pathways.

The recommendations include not only beefing up instruction in world languages and social studies, but also infusing global perspectives across the curriculum. After all, many of today’s challenges are international in nature, from health and environmental science to business and commerce, and our educational system needs to reflect this.

Educators, community and business leaders brought together at the April 2011 meeting of the Statewide International Education Council and at the Wisconsin Global Education Summit in February 2012, and high school students who attended the first Wisconsin Global Youth Summit in February 2013 called for doing more to foster the development of global citizenship across the state.

In response, State Superintendent Tony Evers this fall unveiled the Wisconsin Global Education Achievement Certificate – the first statewide policy of this kind in the nation – to provide a framework for schools to begin translating years of recommendations into practice. 

The Global Education Achievement Certificate enables graduating high school students to earn recognition for successfully completing a broad international curriculum and engaging in co‐curricular activities and experiences that foster the skills and knowledge that today’s marketplace values.

Under the policy, each district defines its own criteria for awarding the Global Scholars designation, within the guidelines. Mindful of the diversity among districts across the state, the policy provides flexibility, while maintaining sufficient rigor to ensure that the certificate has value.

Aware of today’s fiscal landscape for public education, the working group that shaped this policy sought to ensure that districts could implement the certificate program at little or no added expense.

As architects of the policy, we recognized that our schools already have many of the key curricular components for global education. We set out to provide a framework to tie these pieces together, while also encouraging schools to strengthen international content where possible and appropriate.

The co-curricular and service components of the certificate program are intended, in part, to encourage students and schools to identify and reach out to international resources within their communities and around the state. In addition to universities and colleges, these resources can include businesses with international connections, immigrants, cultural organizations, and individuals with international interests, experiences and expertise – such as returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

Many of us who are engaged in international education believe that Wisconsin already has significant capacity to advance the goals that have been repeatedly articulated, if only we connect these resources in a coherent framework. The Wisconsin Global Education Achievement Certificate policy aims to do just that.

Kerry G. Hill

President, Global Wisconsin, Inc.

Member, State Superintendent's International Education Council

Director of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of International Studies

How I Got From Then to Now

Eugene Cernan, one of the few humans to set foot on the moon, said: “Curiosity is the essence of human existence and exploration has been part of humankind for a long time.”

Cernan also said: “It’s our destiny to explore.”

Astronaut Frank Borman said: “Exploration really is the essence of the human spirit, and to pause, to falter, to turn our back on the quest for knowledge, is to perish.”

I’ve always seen myself as an explorer. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of exploration ... studying explorers in history class ... following space missions as closely as some follow baseball and football teams ... and biking off to “discover” new neighborhoods in the city where I grew up.

My love of adventure led to the defining experience of my life at age 17. I applied to become an exchange student, and lived with a native Chamorro family on a tropical Pacific island ... in a chain first visited by explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

I was on an island that had seen one of the bloodiest WWII battles in the Pacific theater … and within sight of the neighboring island, where the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were launched.

In addition to exploring, the experience fully awakened my drive to tell stories about where I’d been, what I’d seen and experienced. I saw then that I was destined to be a journalist ... a storyteller.

I got a journalism degree, followed by more than two decades at daily newspapers ... reporter, writer, and editor. In 2001, I left that business, but still see myself as a journalist – and explorer.

Over my newspaper career, I learned a bit about photography … shot various subjects, even though that wasn’t my primary role. I also learned about photos working as an editor and page designer. Developing an eye for photo composition and editing. I’ve had opportunities to work with and observe some truly gifted news photographers -- guys like Roger Turner, Joseph Jackson III, Steve Apps, John Maniaci, and Craig Schreiner at the Wisconsin State Journal.

I applied what I learned in taking photos of family and of my travels, got some nice landscape shots that were good enough to use as gifts.

In my development into a photo artist, I want to mention two more pieces of the puzzle.

In 2002, I started my study and practice of taiji quan (tai chi), which includes meditation. As such, I’ve become fascinated by the simple, yet complex concept of mindfulness – best described as “being fully aware in the present moment.” My approach to photography is very much rooted in mindfulness.

A few years ago, I got my first Canon digital camera, which enabled me to take more photos and — more importantly — interact with the images on the computer. I’ve done a bit of darkroom work, processing and printing, but I am a digital photographer.

These pieces came together most notably during a couple of photo shoots in November 2007 along Starkweather Creek, on Madison's North Side. The positive reaction to my photos gave me the courage to explore the possibility of doing a photo show — Starkweather: Autumn Reflections.

That’s my journey thus far in a nutshell … explorer … journalist … photographer.