Community Spotlight: Meet Colleen
Meet Colleen Graham! Colleen is in her 33rd year of teaching and is the Global Lead at Johnsonville Elementary in Harnett County, North Carolina. Colleen has done a wonderful job at growing Global Leaders with her team at Johnsonville and we are so excited to spotlight her this week!
Colleen is in her 4th year serving as the Reading Recovery teacher, which she really loves. Outside the classroom, Colleen is a busy wife, mother and cheerleader for her four amazing sons.
Colleen is very dedicated and committed to growing global education at her school, and does a beautiful job at finding natural ways to integrate things like our global competencies into the classroom. She and her team have done an outstanding job at building a strong foundation for Global Leaders at Johnsonville Elementary, and we are so excited to see what they do next!
Why Global Leaders?
Colleen is adamant that Global Leaders is the way to grow better citizens at Johnsonville Elementary. The work she and her team have done with the global competencies has been really impactful! Colleen and her team have a clear vision for what it means to be a Global Leader at Johnsonville, and they are taking the steps to bring that vision to life every day.
"Global leaders and global education are so important to me because I want to be able to affect change in our Johnsonville community. Having an awareness of the world around them and the part they play in every community they belong to is so important for our young people. Through global education, our students are learning empathy, understanding, tolerance, respect for differences and so much more. We are building better citizens every day through our work."
Colleen's wonderful principal, Renee Gilmore, agrees! She shared this about Colleen's tremendous leadership and the growth of Global Leaders at Johnsonville Elementary this year.
"Mrs. Graham along with the global committee have established a global vision for Johnsonville Elementary and she is passionate about achieving that vision. She goes above and beyond to ensure that the staff has resources to teach the global competencies and that global awareness is a part of the culture at Johnsonville Elementary school."
Colleen's Advice For Others
Global leadership is a way of life - a way of thinking through a different lens. You can incorporate the global competencies throughout your day without a lot of extra effort. As educators, this mindset comes naturally to us. Come visit a Global Leaders school and feel the community atmosphere. Change is happening all around us. Be a part of something really special and help make the world a better place.