From chalkboards to AI, Dorothy Holley (’15) has seen plenty of changes across 30 years in the classroom. Yet, one thing has remained constant: her desire to keep learning.
Two decades after she first stepped into a classroom as a chemistry teacher, Holley was assigned to teach a course in environmental science, a subject required for high school graduation in North Carolina but one she had never studied herself either in high school or during her undergraduate work at Wake Forest University.
In response, the chemistry teacher who now teaches at West Johnston High School in Benson, NC, began looking for ways to further her knowledge in her new field. That search led her to Montreat College, which offered a master’s program in environmental education at the time. The program’s hybrid design, combining weekend campus visits once a month with online coursework and two weeks of intensive summer coursework, was ideal for her as a full-time educator. The structure also fostered a strong sense of community among participants and reflected a thoughtfully designed educational experience.
While the coursework successfully prepared her for her new teaching assignment, Holley’s biggest takeaway from Montreat was a renewed desire to learn.
“I’m a lifelong learner because of my master’s work at Montreat,” acknowledged Holley, who was one of only 16 STEM teachers in the United States named an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow for the 2023-24 school year. “Montreat was perfect for me because it gave me an opportunity to remember how much I loved learning, and it rekindled that desire to keep learning more academically.”
Holley’s commitment to learning didn’t stop with her master’s degree from Montreat. In 2021, she earned a Ph.D. in STEM Education from North Carolina State University. Most recently, her commitment to lifelong learning took her to Senegal for two weeks through the prestigious Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, which sends U.S. educators abroad to explore international education systems and return home with new global perspectives to share with their students. In addition to Senegal, current participating countries in the program this year are India, Peru, and Uruguay.
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Fulbright program was established to promote peace and mutual understanding to avoid war throughout the world. For Holley, the emphasis on that mission was a responsibility she took seriously.
“I tend to see the best in everything, so I took this as an opportunity to show the best of what America can be and the America that I love,” she expressed.
To illustrate this concept of global cooperation to her own students, she used a familiar and practical analogy.
“Our biggest rival is South Johnston here in Johnston County,” she explained. “There’s angst and ill will, and it’s not good for either of our schools to have such negativity against each other. If we were countries, it might lead to fighting, and people might die. Instead, if we can go and learn about these other places, and they can come and learn about us, then we’re going to see each other as real people, and hopefully we’re going to find ways to work together and be less likely to waste our resources on holding grudges or fighting wars.”
Located on the Atlantic coast, Senegal is the westernmost country on the African continent. Primarily an Islamic and French-speaking nation, it is one of the 40 poorest countries in the world. Yet, Senegal’s education system is rich in respect for teachers and the learning process. Though Holley admitted that her French was limited, she discovered that a smile is a universal language.
“Kids wanted to shake our hands and touch us because many of them had never seen a white person before,” she reflected. “They didn’t see that we were just Americans. They saw that we were friendly, that we shook their hand, that we smiled when they smiled, and we were trying to say hello.”
During her time in Senegal, she observed many teachers who demonstrated strong instructional skills, earning the admiration of Holley and other visiting educators. Although students in Senegal have access to cell phones, they are not a distraction during class. In some cases, visiting educators attempted to introduce lessons through the students’ phones, only to find that internet access or mobile data wasn’t available to support the lesson. This highlighted a stark contrast between the reliance on technology in Western education and the traditional, teacher-centered approach.
Students in Senegal also took remarkable responsibility for their own learning in ways that surprised Holley and impressed other visiting American teachers. Simple actions, like students offering a pen or a piece of chalk to a teacher, revealed a culture where learning is a shared responsibility and discipline issues are rare.
“In Senegal, the responsibility is on the student to learn,” she said. “If we can foster that here, it would go a long way to helping our students learn more.”
Overall, Holley’s Fulbright experience in Senegal not only deepened her understanding of education across cultures but also expanded her vision of what it means to be a global citizen and educator.
“I teach chemistry, and chemistry can be used to solve problems all over the world,” she explained. “We all need access to clean water and sustainable sources of energy, and the United States doesn’t need to come up with those solutions by ourselves. We’re better and the solutions are better when people come together, so we need to learn how to talk with people who are different from us, who look different from us, and who speak differently.”
For Holley, that valuable lesson can be carried into her own classroom each day.
“We are called to welcome others,” she said. “Our world is so vast and huge, and people come in many different shapes and sizes. In my role as a teacher, I have students who come from so many different backgrounds, even within the United States, so understanding different perspectives and different ways of doing things helps me better welcome each student.”
After 30 years as an educator, Holley’s heart remains open to growth, and she embraces each opportunity with humility. Those are just a couple of the many reasons she continues to make a positive difference in the lives of her students.
“I have white hair, but you’re never too old to learn and appreciate something new,” she said. “This trip was life changing. It seems kind of trite, but to be reminded that our world is so big and God is able to love all of us helps me. Any day that you get to help people is a good day.”
