Training Cambodian Teachers

From 1975 to 1979, nearly 2 million people in Cambodia, including many of the nation’s most educated citizens, were killed by the Khmer Rouge.  The resulting scarcity of educational leaders stunted development of the country’s school system.

Caring for Cambodia, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Siem Reap, works to solve the problem.

Sothy Eng, professor of practice of Comparative and International Education, guided five interns in their work with the organization and two other NGOs.
Eng, who leads a partnership between Lehigh and Caring for Cambodia, says the partnership allows students to transfer theoretical knowledge into practical work. “They gained cultural immersion in the country,” he says, as they experienced daily life with different people without knowing the local language. “They had to learn to navigate.”

Among the efforts:

Amy Moyer Ed.D. ’14 designed and led four workshops for English teachers, helping them to develop more engaging, conversation-focused lessons. Moyer also recorded audio clips and trained teachers in how to incorporate the audio into classroom instruction.
 
Luke Zhang ’15 trained teachers to use an online database for student information, as well as repaired and updated the computers in the Caring for Cambodia’s eight computer labs.

Graduate student Amanda Blain Pritt wrote curricula for the organization’s Wheel Program, which provides extracurricular instruction in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) art, music, health, sports, and service.

Helen Ard ’17 organized fund-raising efforts to support the daycare sites of her assigned NGO, Cambodian Development Mission for Disabilities. Her work included a fundraiser to provide sites with needed supplies, as well as a long-term effort to allow Lehigh students to travel to and assist the organization in 2015.

Dean Granot ‘15 assisted the Royal University of Phnom Penh in analyzing data for a study on the effect of the Cambodian genocide on survivors and their children. He also helped organize a major international conference on mental health and worked with faculty to design the curriculum for a course on the history of psychology.

“The work that I did changed me,” says Granot. “I’m not the same person I was when I left, and I’m very happy with the change.” Caring for Cambodia was founded by Jamie Amelio, wife of William Amelio ’79, after an eye-opening visit to Cambodia in 2003, when she encountered a 9-year-old girl panhandling for money to help pay her school tuition.