Since graduating in the winter of 22′, and having worked two Americorps positions as an eco-cultural interpreter in the NE Mojave and as an art teacher in the Tetons, I have now returned to Bhutan through a partnership between The Teton Science Schools (TSS) and the Bhutan Youth Development Fund (YDF). For at least the rest of 2025 I will be splitting my time between the campuses of Nazhoen Pelri School and My Gakidh Village School, both primary schools. There I will be working to further the integration of Place Based Education (PBE) within the curriculum of each school. In the long term, YDF plans to use these two schools as models for the introduction of PBE into national curricular standards.

The partnership between TSS and YDF has emerged as Bhutan attempts to steer its curriculum away from test based, punitive learning. Instead Place Based Education is being utilized with the aim of strengthening Bhutanese cultural values within youth, while utilizing an ethos of “community as classroom” and “design thinking” to make students and schools on the whole into active agents within the community. This enables students to both enact change and further their capability as learners. As Bhutan continues its rapid development PBE enforces the merger of traditional values with the nation’s ambitious goals for the future.

My work will include training teachers, communicating the goals of PBE with the community, and studying the histories of education within the country.

Favorite SFS Memory: Seeing the sunrise from the summit of Kitiphu.