Thank you for being you, Melissa.
“I’m just me”
Today is Melissa Collum’s birthday, and I wanted to take a moment to recognize a person that has shaped me in how I work in the classroom, with Open World Cause, and who I am as a person. This is a picture of Professor Collum and I, conducting informing interviews with the wonderful students of HIPAfrica in 2017.
Four years ago, I met Professor Melissa Collum at the National Conference for the Social Studies in New Orleans, Louisiana. I was eager to have the opportunity to go to this conference. I had spent my time in KU’s School of Education looking for a professor with experience working in international education. I was the executive director of the non-profit Open World Cause and had been a priority for me to find a professor at KU who was willing to work with us, advise us, or be a part of our organization in any capacity. I know I exhausted my poor classmates in the process of this search, because in every class introduction, I would mention OWC and made it a focal point in the work I did for each class.
When I joined KUCSS (KU’s Council for the Social Studies), I was excited to be able to go National Conference for the Social Studies. This was a trip led by our incredible Professor, Dr. Joe O’ Brien. I had heard from the cohort ahead of me that this was a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded educators. Even better, I was so excited for the opportunity to finally visit New Orleans. For a long time, I considered New Orleans to be the definitive “American” city. New Orleans was the site of the birthplace of Jazz, which I consider to be our country’s greatest contribution to the arts. It also is a city that embodies the cosmopolitan nature of our country’s culture. I was also given time off work from KU dining on the condition that I check out a few “hole in the wall” restaurants that our chefs loved (thank you for the time off, Kim!)
Coop’s Place was incredible. Thank you so much for the recommendation, Kim!
At the conference, our group at KU had a session where we talked about the work KUCSS did about a project that covered the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) as well as our partnership with the Dole Institute at KU. I feel really thankful for all of the officers of KUCSS for leading a project of this scale. They were more than open to allowing me to include what I had learned through Colorado’s Easter Seals and design a project based on the life of Civil RIghts leaders Larry Ruiz. All of the officers did incredible work here and I feel thankful that I was able to be part of the KUCSS organization. While in KUCSS, I got to know a student named Ryan Fullerton. Ryan and I instantly bonded over our shared passion for working in the classroom. Working in KUCSS with Ryan made me realize just what an incredible educator Ryan was going to be for his future students and made me hope to stay connected with him in the future.
Presenting about the ADA at the National Conference for the Social Studies.
In NOLA, one of my peers already seemed to be dreading the sheer amount I was going to talk about OWC during the poster sessions and in my free time at the conference. I always looked at OWC as a way to help give my peers opportunities to be a part of a project-based effort that could give opportunities in their professional careers, but those poor folks probably heard my elevator pitch about 50 times by this point. I was told, “You can just relax here, you know.” I felt bad, because ultimately I saw NCSS as a networking opportunity, perhaps the best one that I ever had access to as a student from KU.
I did find time for a little R&R in NOLA!
When I gave my introduction at the conference hall, my professor (graduate teaching assistant Tina Ellsworth) snapped her fingers when I mentioned OWC, and introduced me to Professor Melissa Collum at Viterbo University. Tina even told me “Ben, I believe this is the person you have been looking for”, I learned that Professor Collum had lived in Kenya for three years, worked for the U.N. on giving young women in Rwanda access to education after the Rwandan Genocide, and now worked as a professor to give student teachers access to international opportunities in education. I was amazed.
In the span of a couple of hours, Melissa and I bonded over our love for teaching, travel, and service learning. Do you ever get the sense that you just made a lifelong friend after just meeting someone? Because that is exactly how I felt after meeting Melissa. In a lot of ways, Melissa went on to restore my faith in the potential of K-12 education. When I explained that I was feeling a bit jaded by my inability to build projects around the topic of international education or build long-term partnerships, she explained, “They’ll come. Just keep sharing the opportunities you have for people to serve, and they’ll find you.”
Melissa and I, after one of our 3 hour talks at NCSS.
In the four years after that conversation, Professor Collum has been kind enough to volunteer to lead now two international travel trips on behalf of the Open World Cause and our partnered communities. It’s difficult for me to express just how much I’ve learned about teaching, service, and myself by learning from Melissa. Each time I thank her for the impact she’s making, she replies with, “I’m just me.” Melissa, by being just her, restored my faith in the potential scope and scale of the projects we can teach at the K-12 level. She showed me that we do have the opportunity to give students opportunities to be a part of real-world change. Heck, Melissa is a pioneer in this field, and I’m thankful every day that I was able to go to NCSS, and that Melissa was kind enough to devote a few hours of her time to talk to a undergraduate student like me. As she has for so many, her leadership, insight, and wisdom has changed my life, and she is a person that anyone in the K-12 field would benefit from knowing. She was right, too. In the years since I graduated at KU, three of my professors in the School of Education (and an effort led by Ryan Fullerton in the 2017-2018 KUCSS group) have partnered with efforts through Open World Cause. I was honored that the Professor who our KUCSS trip, Dr. Joe O’ Brien, was able to partner with Open World Cause to lead an effort to curricularize Digital Legacy Projects. That was honestly something I’m still honored by when I think back to my time at KU. One of my professors, Jeremy Gulley, even traveled to a school OWC was partnered with in Kenya and helped oversee an educational initiative. It’s been amazing to partner with Ryan since my last year in college as well, as we’ve worked together on initiatives for Boy’s State, Legacy Projects, and Open World Cause since that time, and I honestly feel honored to know him as I do.
The insight of Melissa’s words has gone on to change my life, and even my belief in this world, in many ways. I am thankful every day that I met Melissa and listened to her. I could not be happier with my teaching experience so far (after 4 years in the classroom) and meeting Melissa is a big reason for that. If there are any new educators reading this who are feeling jaded about their experience in the classroom so far, all I can do is repeat the type of advice Melissa gave to me. There are incredible opportunities in this field, just keep looking, and eventually they’ll find you.
Professor Gulley and his incredible wife (Professor Beth Gulley) led a group that got to see the completed classrooms at HIPAfrica funded by OWC!
Now that OWC’s trip to Nepal is officially complete, I’m left with how Melissa mentored our team as we led Professor Development programs for teachers in Nepal, helped worked to establish a Day for Girls program in Nepal, which she co-ran alongside Anjali Acharya, and finally, leading a life in the service of others, one that’s already made an impact for learners around the world. Melissa doesn’t care for extended thank yous (which, as this article proves, I’m quite poor at), so today all I’ll say is thank you for being you, Melissa.
Melissa leading a Days for Girls session in Nepal with administrator Sudha Panthy and teacher Anjali Acharya
Melissa going over OWC’s itinerary and goals in Nepal.
Melissa leading a toothbrushing lesson for students in Nepal!