BHS Teachers in for an Interesting Summer Vacation

By Danni Dunlop and Meghan Cusack Several Branford High teachers were recently awarded grants to travel to different parts of the globe this summer – from Europe to Cuba. The teachers who received these interesting opportunities are Mr. Joel Hinrichs, Mr. Peter Bouley, Mrs. Maura Sullivan and Mrs. Elise Weisenbach. Bouley and Hinrichs will travel to Germany, Serbia and Greece to investigate the Syrian Refugee Crisis, while Sullivan and Weisenbach will venture into Cuba – newly open to the West – to explore the Cuban lifestyle. Bouley and Hinrichs will be able to interview many participants including politicians, business owners, and even the refugees themselves in order to gain a clearer understanding of the unfolding Syrian refugee crisis.  Students will help with generating the interview questions, according to Bouley and Hinrichs. They are both excited for the trip but also feel a little emotionally overwhelmed at the same time. “I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to see,” said Bouley.  “I can see the pictures and watch Youtube and I can read articles, but we don’t really know what we’re getting in to, especially since it is so fluid.” For the most part, their families seem to be okay with them going on the trip.  However, parts of their families may feel nervous for them. Hinrichs thinks part of the reason why they’re going on this trip is to show that “People are people, people are good; you don’t have to live your whole life in fear.” The ultimate goal of this trip is to bring back information to BHS students about other parts of the world since many people don’t completely understand how the families being uprooted during this crisis are being impacted. “I think that diving in feet first and walking those areas where it’s actually happening will give us a much better perspective to bring back to other parts of the world because right now it’s just a headline,” Bouley said. In 2012, Hinrichs received a grant to travel to Saudi Arabia to broaden cultural understanding in his social studies classes. Like Bouley and Hinrichs, Sullivan and Weisenbach will get to fully immerse themselves in a different culture. They will be exploring Cuban lifestyle through meeting various families, tobacco farmers and mural artists; they will also be visiting a village. Visiting Cuba is an exciting opportunity that Mrs. Weisenbach has wanted to do for a long time. She has wanted to be able to see Cuba in person because it “makes activities [about Cuba] more interesting,” she added that it would be better to “have [her] own pictures and to have more Cuban music instead of just Cuban-American music.” Mrs. Weisenbach said that she was excited to be able to talk to the local families and being able to listen to the native music. With Bouley and Hinrichs coming back with real-life experience of exploring the Syrian Refugee Crisis and Weisenbach and Sullivan coming back with personal accounts of Cuba, Branford High students should be ready for the classroom to be even more intriguing than before.