My name is T.J. Slancauskas (he/him). I am a Secondary Social Studies educator from Lower Burrell, PA (about 20 minutes away from Pittsburgh). In December 2020, I earned my Bachelor of Arts in History and a Minor Certificate in Religious Studies from Penn State University, and in December 2022, I earned my Master of Education and Secondary Social Studies Education Certification from Carlow University. Currently, I work as an adjunct history instructor at Penn Highlands Community College, where I teach virtual survey courses in American history. While I am not teaching my courses at Penn Highlands Community College, I split my days working as a substitute teacher at both Fox Chapel Area High School and Springdale Junior-Senior High School (both in the Pittsburgh area). Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my two dachshunds, Lea and Oreo, reading books, hiking, camping, and traveling.
This summer I am a Program Leader for both sessions of Inside World Governance Program in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We live in a world in which people face one another across gulfs of geography, language, and nationality. More than at any time in the past, we all depend on people we have never seen, and they depend on people we have never seen, and they depend on us. The problems we need to solve – economic, environmental, religious, and political – are global in their scope. They have no hope of being solved unless people once distant come together and cooperate in ways they have not before. Through programs such as the Inside World Governance Program, students are provided with with a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures and other points of view. I believe that before an intellectual understanding of ideas and dogmas can occur, it is imperative to truly appreciate others – but that can only happen once individuals have put themselves in a healthy state of mind. By understanding others and entering their worlds, individuals can become better people with a broader perspective. History, government, cultural studies, and language courses have provided me with the necessary critical and analytical skills to do just that, and I hope to help students acquire that knowledge during this travel abroad learning experience.
