Teacher shares in learning experience

• By PAM BORDELON
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 20, 2009 - Page: 1D

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

More than 9,000 miles — that’s how far Thailand is from Louisiana. That’s a long way for anyone but especially for a 22-year-old young woman fresh out of college. But that is the trip Veronica Mollere took the first of October.

Mollere, the daughter of Dr. Renée Bruno and Scot Mollere, was one of a record six Fordham College at Lincoln Center students and two alumni to receive Fulbright awards for 2009-2010. She’s in Thailand to teach English to sixth-10th graders.

“It’s a big leap into oblivion; I’m a little scared,” she confessed during a phone interview shortly before she left. “There’s lots of anxiety, but I’m real excited.”

As Mollere stated in her Fulbright proposal, “The educational process is reciprocal: it includes not only my transmitting knowledge of English to youth who would not otherwise engage in such education, but also my participating as an active learner of Thai for a shared learning experience. The human element of learning a language is essential, and I do not underestimate the power of a classroom setting versus, say, a computer program. Language is a tool for communication and the process must be give and take… I intend to use my background as an artist to facilitate creative learning and demonstrate that art can be an imaginative bridge between the two languages.”

The challenge isn’t just being in a foreign country but the ages of Mollere’s students, which range from 11 to 16. “That’s a headstrong age, and they’ll have the advantage of speaking their native tongue,” she said with a laugh. “They’ll be able to communicate among themselves and I’ll have to figure out how to get through to them.” 

Fortunately she’ll have the help of a Thai co-teacher.

So, how did this Louisiana gal end up in Thailand? After graduating from Baton Rouge Magnet High School in 2005, Mollere headed to the Big Apple to attend Fordham University at Lincoln Center.

“I applied to Fordham half on a whim, and half I knew I wanted to go to a Jesuit School and also get out of Baton Rouge,” she said. “I only applied to two schools so, when I got accepted at Fordham I said let’s do it.”

At Fordham, she majored in social work and visual arts, with a concentration in painting and drawing. At the time, she never planned on incorporating the two disciplines. Then after Hurricane Katrina and her experience with children impacted by the storm, as well as her work with Free Arts New York City, which provides underserved children and families with a unique combination of educational arts and mentoring programs that help foster self-confidence and resiliency, she reconsidered.

Mollere comes by her interest in social work naturally; her mother is a psychiatrist. She developed a love of the arts at Baton Rouge High, where she took both art and dance. “I still dance for fun but it’s quite expensive to take classes in New York,” she said.

Now she’s sharing that experience with her students in Thailand.

Mollere also did an internship with GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services) as part of her Fordham studies. The program’s mission is to empower young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. “Working with victims of sexual trafficking was my motivation for living and working in Thailand,” Mollere said.

She explained further in her Fulbright proposal: “My social work experience in the United States concentrates on women’s issues, particularly commercial sexual exploitation. I will attempt to make contact with End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography & Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), as a learning experience, as it is an organization that focuses on the same issue of commercial sexual exploitation that I work with in New York City. I acknowledge that this is a delicate issue in Thailand, as it is in the United States. Through my experiences with affected young women and the consequent relationships we have built, I recognize their vulnerability. My focus lies in their need for strong relationships with other females and personal empowerment as a means to find individual strength, all social issues aside. Through an art group I hope to cultivate stronger individual identities as well as community strength through the sharing of their creations and the experiences that have informed them.”