Scimeca Awarded Travel Scholarship

St. Michael’s A.P. Geography teacher John Scimeca won’t just be talking about Germany in his classes next year—he’ll be living there this summer! Scimeca was chosen as a scholarship recipient of the Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP) which funds select educators for the opportunity to learn more about Germany over a fifteen day period.  

TOP is a program initiated in 2002 as a public/private partnership by former German ambassador to the United States Wolfgang Ischinger.  Its goal is to provide “curriculum and study tour experiences for social studies educators, STEM educators, and decision makers in North America.”  

Scimeca is excited about the opportunity: “I am very humbled to have this unique professional development opportunity.  Not only will I be able to interact with other social studies teachers, but I will also have the chance to witness, observe, visit, and interact with modern Germany firsthand.  This would be a great benefit to my courses, as Germany is a very important figure in the subjects of World History, U.S. History, and AP Human Geography.”

This will not be Scimeca’s first experience abroad; in fact, he is well-traveled.  Prior to teaching at St. Michael, he lived in Santiago, Chile for eighteen months, teaching English to Spanish-speaking students, becoming fluent in Spanish himself. He’s also traveled to Britain, Italy, Romania, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Canada.