Hannah Pepper, Chemistry and Earth and Space Science teacher at Hellgate High School, recently got the unique opportunity to travel to Taiwan with the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program.
The program is designed for educators K-12 from elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States providing a yearlong professional learning opportunity and a short-term exchange.
The acceptance rate was fairly low as Pepper was one of 100 teachers from across America selected to participate in the program and was the only teacher from Montana. To apply, “you wrote some essays, you got some letters of recommendation, you answered some questions, a little bit like a college application,” said Pepper.
Though the trip occurred in mid April of this year, preparations started way back in June of 2025 when Pepper was first accepted to the program.
The program started with “a semester-long class on global education during the first semester of the school year,” said Pepper. “Then we went to Washington DC in February for two days and did a conference on global education.”
Once spring time came, participants were split into groups of 10 to 20 and were sent to countries including Taiwan, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Senegal, and Uruguay. In these locations the participants got to tour the education systems and visit classrooms of all levels.
“We started as a whole group of 12 and we spent about three days in the capital city,” said Pepper. There they learned the history, culture, and background of the country. “Then we broke into small groups and my group went to the south part of the island. We rode the high speed rail all the way to the south.”
In the south they spent 3 days at the vocational high school. “We went into the classrooms, we met with the teachers, and then we moved to a rural district about an hour away and we went into elementary and middle school classrooms there for about 3 days,” Pepper said. “We observed, we talked with the kids, we talked with the teachers, and then we all met back up in the capital city of Taipei again.” There they attended the final conference with all of the teachers from Taiwan and all of the American teachers.
“I think for chemistry it showed that the things that we do [in class] are done across the world in countries with pretty developed STEM programs,” said Pepper. “I think that was very validating that you guys are learning the things you should be learning in chemistry.”
“Professionally the best part I think was getting to make connections with the teachers,” said Pepper. “I think it has given me perspective on how connected the world is and how important it is for high school kids to learn in the scope of the rest of the world.”
