![summer]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1578334818/austinprep/h0dtsbhhyurzru98cyqu/ScreenShot2020-01-06at11936PM.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1578334818/austinprep/h0dtsbhhyurzru98cyqu/ScreenShot2020-01-06at11936PM.png","width":383}])
The annual Faculty Summer Sabbatical Program is an indispensable part of Austin Prep’s investment in its faculty, promoting their growth as practitioners in the classroom and leaders in their fields, and sustaining best practices in teaching and learning. This year’s sabbaticals, which are funded by gifts to the Annual Fund, took four teachers to destinations across the globe.
Roger Stone, Latin Faculty, celebrates the completion of his 50th year of teaching at Austin Prep by returning to the site of his Fulbright Grant Fellowship for coursework paired with an in-depth study of Aquileia, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Founded by the Romans as a military outpost, Aquileia grew into an important trade and commerce center and eventually as one of the most thriving cities in the Roman Empire. Roger looks forward to bringing the lessons he'll learn in the field at this archeological site to his Latin classroom.
Michele Brewer, Math Faculty, will transition to teach Upper School Math this fall. Recently completing her second masters degree in education with a focus on emerging technologies, Michele will travel to Orlando to participate in a conference on the Kagan Structures, instructional strategies aimed at increasing understanding, confidence, achievement, and engagement with secondary mathematics.
Alicia Varraso, History Faculty, who completed her first year at Austin Prep, participated as the co-chaperone of Austin Prep's Summer Travel Program to Greece. Alicia’s sabbatical will transform her sixth grade unit on Greece as she journeys to the birthplace of democracy and the cradle of Western Civilization to experience Greek history and culture in the same hands-on way that she teaches her students.
Dr. Ricardo Vanegas, P’21, ’24, Science Faculty, will travel to the United Kingdom to work with scientists from around the globe to explore the latest research in the emerging STEM field of Bioinformatics (a revolutionary interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combines biology, computer science, information engineering, mathematics, and statistics to analyze and interpret biological data). Ric studied at the John Innes Center in Norwich, England and worked alongside a global community of scientists on the emerging Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology and its application to medicine and DNA replication. The Biotechnology course that Ric teaches will explore some of the latest research on genetic and medical engineering.