Naperville teacher becomes 'fearless traveler' in Cambodia

Chris Heffernan teaches world geography and moderates #worldgeochat on Twitter, but until he got a cool travel opportunity this fall, he had only been to Canada, Mexico, England and France for a day.

His lack of personal globe-trotting experience was actually part of what made Heffernan, a teacher at Jefferson Junior High in Naperville, an appealing choice to travel to Cambodia to help film educational documentaries for ProjectExplorer.org.

The fact that Heffernan wanted to travel not for personal reasons, but to share firsthand stories with his students impressed ProjectExplorer.org's selection committee, director and founder Jenny Buccos said.

“This experience wasn't about him; it was about what this experience could teach his students,” Buccos said. “It came from such a pure place. He just hadn't experienced much of the world himself and he wanted to give that opportunity to his students.”

Chosen from a pool of 150 applicants nationwide, Heffernan joined three women in the ProjectExplorer.org film crew for a 10-day trip to the south Asian country to gather film clips and still shots for between 12 and 15 short documentaries. The finished documentaries will be five minutes each, meant to inspire thoughtful dialogue in classrooms about global topics, Buccos said.

Heffernan discovered ProjectExplorer.org through an educational podcast he watches, and he's used some of its videos to provide cultural education about what life is like in other countries.

Traveling in Cambodia, Heffernan says, he was struck by both the similarities and differences between Cambodian and American life.

Kids are kids, no matter the location, he said. But Cambodian kids often have to drop out of school by sixth grade and go to work to support their families. While they're in school, they each take a “job” to keep the facility running, such as sweeping the playground or ringing the bell.

There is a marked difference between urban and rural life in Cambodia, Heffernan noticed, with people outside of major cities often living in the same conditions as their predecessors would have 100 or 200 years ago. Yet, as they work at their traditional looms in the clothing industry — Cambodia's largest — some residents will have a piece of modern technology — the iPhone — right beside them.

“The rural and urban areas are vastly different, but even in the rural areas, you're starting to see the modern world creep in,” said Heffernan, 40. “Everything is constantly changing as the world becomes more and more connected. Even cultures that are independent and cut off from other parts of the world are still being influenced by it.”

As a teacher fellow with ProjectExplorer.org, Heffernan's job before the journey was to brainstorm topics that should be covered and help plan the trip. While in Cambodia, he shot pictures and gave a teacher's point of view. Between now and April, he'll help develop lesson plans that will be posted free online with the videos for teachers to access, Buccos said.

The Cambodian trip will allow the nonprofit educational resource organization to touch on several broad topics that often are discussed in school, but not from a Cambodian perspective.

Teachers cover the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, so one documentary will focus on genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s and how the country is still recovering from its effects. Food is a common cultural topic, so one video will explore ways to feed the world's growing population in 2050, and how bugs, such as the tarantula commonly eaten in Cambodia, can plan a role.

Other videos will explain where clothing comes from and working conditions in Asian countries.

Addressing working conditions was important to Heffernan as a teacher because it can help make students in Naperville grateful for all the opportunities they have.

Heffernan didn't even wait until the experience was over to begin sharing it with his students, who are seventh-graders in world geography. He had a fellow Jefferson teacher convene all of the kids in a common area one morning, while he talked with them for an hour via Skype at 11 p.m. Cambodian time.

He made sure to show some pictures and the video clip of him taking not one bite, but at least two, of a tarantula.

“He ate the tarantula because he knew his students wanted him to do it,” Buccos said. “He was a fearless traveler.”