When Penn Manor High School wrapped up its final day of classes for the 2022-23 school year, its students and staff members left the campus to kick off their summer plans. Many kids and their teachers looked forward to vacations, barbecues, or simply escaping their classrooms for a couple months. Mary Wurzbach, however, had something else in mind; the agricultural education teacher traveled a bit farther than the beach, spending four weeks teaching another class in Uganda.

Wurzbach and nine other American teachers were selected for Teach Ag Uganda. The goal of the project, which is sponsored by the Fulbright-Hays Program, is to assist with agricultural education and training in countries around the globe. Wurzbach first heard about Teach Ag Uganda from one of her undergraduate professors when she was a student at Penn State University. Since this specific trip was focused on poultry, a field that Wurzbach has a wealth of experience in, she decided to apply.

On July 6, Wurzbach flew to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. From there, the cohort of educators traveled to Sipi Falls and spent three weeks in Lira, where Wurzbach taught at St. Katherine Secondary School. During her time at the school, Wurzbach educated students on entrepreneurship and self-sustainability by showing them how to raise layer hens and to grow corn. "Everyone is involved in agriculture there. Every kid in my class grew up on a farm," Wurzbach said. "Teaching in the United States, I like to think I'm trying to educate consumers and not necessarily farmers. But (in Uganda), everyone needs agriculture to survive and to become self-sufficient."

Wurzbach has traveled abroad in the past, but this was the first time she had taken a trip of this nature and length. After she returned to the United States on Aug. 4, she began to think of a way to weave her experience from the program into her curriculum for the upcoming school year. Since the school year began, Wurzbach has shared her new perspective with students by highlighting topics such as public education and methods of self-sustainability that function differently in Uganda.

"I wanted to learn more about education and agriculture from a global perspective," said Wurzbach. "It was eye opening to learn how the school system and agriculture methods are different in other parts of the world." Although Wurzbach is happy to be home and does not have plans to leave the country again soon, she will reconnect with her students from Lira to see the progress of their chicks.