Newark High School teachers Leona Vrbanac and Amy Hicks were surprised with Tibbie Leslie Travel Grants by the Licking County Foundation. The grants are awarded annually to Licking County teachers who plan foreign travel to broaden their experience and knowledge and field of interest.
Teachers were also selected for their commitment to bringing the world back to their classrooms in the true spirit of the award’s donor, Tibbie Leslie—a Newark native who traveled the world throughout her 30-year teaching career.
Vrbanac is a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at NHS, and she plans to visit Italy. Through the trip, she hopes to expand her cooking skills with ancient grains. In her application for the grant, she stated, "Not only would I be learning during the baking sessions, but I would be watching an experienced baker teach the craft of her trade. I could learn much from the class set up, organization and execution. I enjoy bringing the smells, sounds, and flavor of the world into the classroom for the students to experience."
Hicks is an algebra and financial algebra teacher at the high school, who also plans to visit Italy and the Mediterranean. She plans to use the trip to emphasize the importance of budgeting and saving for retirement in her lessons. The trip will allow her to learn more about the economies of Italy, Greece and Croatia first hand, and to pass on her knowledge about the differences between European economies and US economies to her students. She wrote, "I hope that practical lessons about saving and investing your money so it can be spent on things that you truly enjoy later in life will resonate with my students."