Passport in hand, he steps off the plane into unfamiliar lands to begin a new chapter in his journey as a teacher. Ghana was never a place he had expected to find himself in, yet there he was. Standing thousands of miles from home, he was filled with wonder and excitement for the adventures that lie ahead.

For Bowie math teacher David Van Newkirk, teaching abroad was an unforgettable experience that shaped his global perspective and helped him discover his passion for teaching. Years before beginning his career as a teacher at Bowie, he signed with the Peace Corps to teach physics in Ghana from 2000 to 2002.

“It was what convinced me I wanted to be a teacher long-term,” Van Newkirk said. “I really, really enjoyed working with the students and communities there. The Ghanaians were an incredibly welcoming people.”

After graduating with his masters degree in physics, his professor suggested he take the opportunity to teach physics in an exciting new place by joining the Peace Corps. Van Newkirk taught at two senior secondary schools in the villages Mozano and Wenchi, teaching physics to students from ages 14 to 19. Some of Van Newkirk’s students earned free college education for receiving outstanding scores on their entrance exams.

“Students really wanted to learn,” Van Newkirk said. “It was pretty common that families were not financially able, even though it was technically free, to pay the school fees for all their children, so students that did get to go recognized that this was a real privilege for them. They were really focused on what was going on in the classroom and really pushing to succeed.”

Students in the senior secondary schools Van Newkirk taught at were separated into various pathways known as streams, aimed to help students develop skills in specific career areas. Van Newkirk taught physics to students in the business and science streams. He also worked to develop a computer science program for Wenchi Senior Secondary School. The Peace Corps agreed to provide half the funding towards the computer science program, while the town raised funding to provide the other half.

“My second school really, really wanted a computer lab so that students could start learning how computers worked,” Van Newkirk said. “We had about a dozen Peace Corps volunteers from around the country who got together with the Ghana Education Service to work on that curriculum, and that was a really neat experience.”

Van Newkirk’s role as an educator in Ghana expanded beyond the classroom setting. He travelled by bicycle for up to seven days at a time across the Volta Region to provide AIDS education to communities there.

“AIDS is, unfortunately, endemic throughout most of Africa,” Van Newkirk said. “There was a particular push during that period to try to raise awareness and understanding of how it was transmitted and how to protect yourself against it. I helped organize another one in the Brong Ahafo region, which was a very rewarding experience.”

Teachers like Van Newkirk serve as an inspiration for the students they taught in other countries as well as their students at Bowie. One of Van Newkirk’s students, sophomore Layla Fair, enjoys his teaching style during geometry class.

“It’s a class where I think everyone feels like they can talk and feels welcome,” Fair said. “If you want to talk to him, he will have an hour long conversation with you about pretty much anything, because he knows a little bit about everything. I think you can kind of see it in the way he teaches and will try and explain stuff to you.”

Van Newkirk believes that teaching in Ghana helped him see the world from a different perspective. He quickly adapted to many of the cultural differences in Ghana and became conversationally fluent in languages in the languages Fante and Twi.

“The opportunity to experience a different culture and see different people from within rather than from without is an incredibly rewarding experience,” Van Newkirk said. “Seeing the United States from a perspective outside the country was absolutely unforgettable. The perspective of American culture when you’re not living in it is totally different.”

Van Newkirk wants to visit Ghana to see how the country has changed and reconnect with friends he made while living there. His passion for travel has led him to consider exploring other parts of the world when given the opportunity.

“I haven’t spent any time in Central or South America, and I do speak Spanish, so it might be interesting to go and learn about more cultures and experiences that I haven’t had before there as well,” Van Newkirk said. “I would recommend international travel not as a tourist, but as something more deeply involved in communities, to anybody.”