By Lorrie Ross
Staff Writer
Australia. The Land Down Under. Regardless of the name, most Americans have only seen it in movies or magazines. Ginger Scerri recently visited the faraway continent as part of Go Global NC.
A few weeks ago, we featured the Hayesville Middle School teacher when her peers chose her as Clay County Teacher of the Year for the second time. During the busy first week of school, we caught up with Scerri again. Her two week trip to Australia lasted through July 31.
“This professional development opportunity will forever impact me personally and professionally. Go Global NC connects North Carolina and the world,” Scerri said. “Go Global NC is focused on international education and training programs that will empower North Carolina leaders with skills, understanding, connections and knowledge to succeed in a global community. Go Global NC’s work strengthens North Carolina to act, grow and prosper.”
Experiencing Australia was an opportunity for the avid history buff to share her first-hand accounts with the community, as well as her social studies students. Scerri kept an online album where several dozen pictures and entries highlight diving the Great Barrier Reef, petting a koala, Sydney Opera House and more. However, she gave us specific details about two of her favorite adventures.
“I would say probably one of my top favorite memories was getting to see the cassowary bird in the Daintree Rainforest,” she smiled. “The rainforest being the oldest rainforest in the world with an animal that literally walked with the dinosaurs and evolutionarily has not changed in 4.5 million years is simply something I can’t put into words. There are only 4,000 of these animals left and most of the population are in zoos or preserves because they are such an endangered species.”
A tribal leader of the Yulangi people acted as the group’s guide through the remote areas of the rainforest. “He was 37 years old and had not seen one of the birds in the wild since he was 13,” she said. “The bird is 7-8 feet tall with sword-like talons and survived along with dinosaurs. We actually had to have rescue come in and extract us because a cassowary bird was stalking our group because it had chicks. Cassowary are a bird and a force to be reckoned with. I could have cried to see such an ancient beast and I still can’t believe we had such an incredible sighting of such a rare animal in the wild, but it was adrenaline, fear and excitement, all in one to be safe. Once in a life time experiences that I will cherish forever.”
The journal entry describes more about Sunday, July 24. “We had the indigenous art tour and Daintree Dreaming Tour, where we had a welcome ceremony to their lands, taught us about serving off the land, heard folk stories and creation stories passed orally and mixed ochre paints with indigenous painters,” she wrote. “We went to an art gallery of indigenous artists, created a guided indigenous art piece with them and got to try a hot seed-a hallow seed from the forest you rub for quick heat.”
Visiting schools was the other main highlight for her. Places like Merrylands East Public School which has a lot of outdoor space and Our Lady of Grace College, Paramatta — a private Catholic high school.
“Nine different public schools, two private schools and two universities, for a total of 13 school systems,” she explained. “We were in the classrooms, presenting to them about the United States and North Carolina school systems, comparing, looking at ways to improve our practice and collaborating so far away. It was absolutely incredible.”
The daily recaps makes her experiences real. Days 14 and 15, to Fishburners for a Young Change Agents Design Thinking session and Go Global NC reflection session. They visited world headquarters of Canva, which commits to keeping education resources free. The day ended with a farewell dinner and performance at the Sydney Opera House.
On July 30, Day 16, “Today was our last day in Australia and we ended this experience wonderfully with a 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. tour where we did as much as we could pack in.” That included a full Aussie breakfast plate followed by an Iceberg Plunge in the Icebergs Pool at Bondi Beach, then the Sydney Fish Market, the second largest fish market in the world. Also, at Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park Preserve and Animal Refuge, she petted koalas, wallabies, kangaroos and koalas. She saw dingos, blue penguins, tree kangaroos, echidna, quokka, emus, cuckoo, platyardpus, diamond python, inland taipan and many other creatures.
“Ended the evening with dinner way out in the Blue Mountains and saw the Southern Hemisphere Stars where we saw the Southern Cross in the sky,” her entry said. “Exhausted but can sleep on the plane. I’m so ready to hold my girls and see Chris.”
Scerri ended. “Forever thankful to Go Global NC for this incredible opportunity. I hope this story gets word out there of the awesome opportunity that other teachers and retired teachers can do with this program. Of course the direct correlation I’m going to get to bring back to my students.”
Visit: https://globalnc.org for details.