To the editor,
As summer travel reaches its peak, a truly remarkable Greene County educator has just returned from leading yet another student trip to France. I want to take a moment to publicly recognize and thank Madame Carlson for her tireless dedication to opening the world to hundreds of students.
I was fortunate enough to be one of those students, traveling to France under her guidance. Looking back now as an adult, I realize that what felt like a seamless, magical adventure for us was actually the result of immense logistical coordination, sacrifice, and stress. Chaperoning high school students abroad is no small feat; it requires around-the-clock responsibility, meticulous planning, and a massive amount of energy.
Madame Carlson has poured her heart, soul, and passion into these study abroad programs for decades. While the work is undoubtedly exhausting, she has never wavered in her commitment to providing young people with a truly global perspective and experience.
The impact of these trips stays with a person forever, showing up in ways both large and small. Madame Carlson didn’t just teach us language and culture from a textbook; she gave us the confidence to navigate the complexity of something so much bigger than Greene County, from a foreign metro system to broadening our horizons to culture and language, in a way classroom lessons never could. She showed us the beauty of everyday local life, teaching us to appreciate the simple perfection of truly artisan bread and the depth of a world outside our comfort zone.
These moments of independence and discovery shape how a young person views the world for the rest of their life.
I encourage our community to reach out to the school’s language department to learn how we can help support students who wish to go on these trips. Contributing to these travel funds is a deeply worthy investment; we are directly helping to create empathetic, globally-minded future leaders in our own community.
There are hundreds of students, now adults scattered across the country, who are fundamentally better off, more open-minded, and more culturally aware because they experienced the world through Madame Carlson’s program. Thank you, Madame Carlson, for your decades of selfless service, your passion for teaching, and for giving so many of us an experience that changed our lives forever.
Sincerely,
Beth (Holz) Gerstenberger
