Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund sends JDCHS teacher to Japan

DRAPER — Juan Diego Catholic High School Fine Arts Teacher Kathryn Czarnecki has been selected to travel to Japan as a guest of the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Program.

The Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program allows distinguished primary and secondary school educators in the U.S. to travel to Japan for three weeks in an effort to promote greater intercultural understanding between the two nations. This year, up to 600 educators will be selected to participate in the 2006 program.

The program provides significant learning opportunities for American educators. Through their experiences in Japan, teachers and administrators are able to enhance their curricula and bring their students and communities a greater understanding of other cultures.

In doing so, the program helps to fulfill Senator Fulbright’s dream of creating a more peaceful world through education and mutual understanding.

"I am excited to incorporate the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund program experience with fine arts," said Czarnecki on bringing the experience back to Juan Diego. "I believe that through art, students are given the foundation for future inquiry and professional achievement.

"The arts release the imagination and offer ways of expressing past experiences, present reflections and future possibilities," she said. "I love sharing creativity with the students in the fine arts department. The arts certainly enable students to explore and express themselves. When students experience art, they become open to new ideas. I believe the same is true with experiencing diverse cultures. I imagine embracing Japan culture with art education to be a powerful thing."

On what she hopes the experience can give her, Czarnecki said, "I believe that the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund program can further inspire me to become the art teacher that I envision – the teacher who ‘is the difference.’ I love to teach art because it enables students to explore and express themselves.

"The significance of visual art in the school curriculum is essential," said Czarnedki. "I believe the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund experience will further enhance the art classroom environment, as well as the school community by enhancing a student’s exploration of new cultural materials, art history, topics and ideas.

"Through sharing this experience, it is my hope to inspire students to bridge the connections between their own creative artistic process and the diverse world around them. I believe that to teach art one should first be an artist who uses the power of art to open young minds to new experiences and personal fulfillment. I also believe that to open young minds to new experience, an art teacher should have new experiences themselves."