The Alaska World Affairs Council
in partnership with
The Turkish Cultural Foundation Presents

Local teachers selected to tour Turkey
   
 

"Turkish Travels, Traumas, and Triumphs"

Friday, 3rd October 2008 – Hilton Hotel
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. - Program begins at 6:00 p.m.
For Reservations
RSVP by Wednesday, 1st October to the Alaska World Affairs Council
by telephone 276-8038 or by email to AlaskaWorldAffairs.org .
Dinner Program $25 for Members - $30 for Non-Members - $10 for Coffee Only

**Thanks to a grant from the Turkish Cultural Foundation, we are proud to offer the first 40 teachers who RSVP free admittance to the following program.
 

Alex Bortnick is a native of Maryland and a 25-year Alaskan resident. After two
Bachelor’s degrees at University of Maryland and a Master’s at American University in Washington, D.C., he lived abroad, worked in a prison, and moved to Washington to complete a law degree. He now teaches at East High School and travels in the summers. When he returned to Turkey this past July, he was able to focus on Secondary School education and Turkish desert recipes.

Irene Bortnick was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. Upon completing her Bachelor's and then her teaching degree, she moved to Israel where she worked as a special education inclusion preschool teacher, and married her American-born husband, Alex. The following year they moved to
the United States where she studied Montessori education and received a
Master's in Early Childhood Education. In between having 4 children, she
worked in various preschools before returning to work full-time for the ASD
16 years ago. She conducted an introductory Montessori class for 2 weeks in
Magadan Russia, has been a mentor teacher and has been a presenter at many
Montessori and Early Childhood Conferences. After her husband and family, her passions include reading, travel, hiking and multicultural education.

John Trampush is an Alaskan educator with experience teaching students in all grades from Kindergarten through Grad School. Within Alaska he has
worked in schools as small as two-room "bush" school-houses and as large as
Anchorage high schools with over 2000 students. He has worked and taught within many cultures, from the Arctic coast to Southeast Alaska. His certifications and primary interests are in history, social studies and educational technology. Currently he is coordinating the Alaska Network for Understanding American History (ANUAH), a newly created '08 federal grant project, organized to create a Teaching American History "networked community of practice" within Alaska.

April Dawn Wilson Susky grew up in Anchorage and graduated from East Anchorage High School in 1979. After High School she went to Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in Nacogdoches, Texas. Choosing to continue studies in Political Science, American Studies, and Art History, while also teaching English Composition and American Literature and Film, she matriculated at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1987, where she continued to teach English and Political Science. Thereafter, she started teaching at UAA in the departments of History and Political Science. April was a writer for the Anchorage Daily News, the Homer News, Business News Alaska, the Anchorage Coin Club, and Alaska Pet News. She was adjunct Professor of Humanities at Alaska Pacific University 1992-1995; Adjunct Professor of Political Science, History and Film at UAA, 1995-1997; and Term Assistant Professor of Political Science, August 2002-July 2004 and August 2006 to present. She specializes in American Government, Congress, and the Presidency, but she values comparative study and looks forward to a fruitful comparison of Turkish and American secularism.