Global Reach
“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” – Dr. Maria Montessori
We put together a map of all of the cities that we know alumni are currently living in, and the reach is global (click here to see it). Based on the experiences we had at Hershey Montessori School, it makes sense that the alumni would live and work all over the world!
As a young student, I remember seeing the flags from around the world in the classrooms. Through the humanities, history, arts, and language classes, we were exposed to a wide variety of cultures from a young age. Starting in Children’s House, we were taught to learn the continent names, promoting knowledge of the world outside of our day-to-day experiences. There are so many ways that Hershey Montessori School celebrated cultural diversity and prompted students to learn about different cultures and civilizations at each plane of development. It was also wonderful to get to attend school with students from all over the world as well – not only were we learning about different cultures, we were learning alongside those with different cultural backgrounds.
Montessori education promotes peace, and the study of other cultures and celebration of differences is one of the ways peace is promoted and integrated into the classrooms. Dr. Montessori said “Establishing peace is the work of education…” and she brilliantly intertwined this into so much of her pedagogy.
Here are some examples of alumni who are learning and working around the world: Tristan Quigley from Australia is working at Universidad Externado in Bogotá, Colombia, Brian Vadakin returned from Costa Rica this year where he was researching rural tourism on a U.S. Fulbright research grant, Collin DeWalt is currently teaching in Daegu, South Korea, Ursula Wilkinson interned at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and Joel Smith is in Amsterdam.
Looking at the global reach that the Hershey Montessori School alumni have, we can see a one-to-one correlation with the peace-promoting education we experienced and Hershey Montessori School alumni’s desire to go out into the world to learn and deepen the cultural experiences we all began having as students.
If you have any exciting travel plans or would like to share how Hershey Montessori School impacted your understanding of culture and the world, please either comment on this post or email me at mwebster@hershey-montessoti.org.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Makella Webster
Hershey Montessori School Alumni Coordinator