International impact shows up in more forms than the categories we like to track. It is not limited to who enrolls where or which passport crosses which border. Sometimes the most powerful influence begins with a single moment of global exposure that reshapes a person’s trajectory and ripples outward for decades.

The story below is not a traditional account of international students transforming a U.S. campus. It is something quieter and equally important. It illustrates how one encounter with the wider world can redirect an entire life, how one year abroad can shape a lifetime of teaching, and how global experiences carry forward long after the original moment has passed. It is a reminder that impact is rarely linear and never fully measurable, yet it is always real.

Here is one educator’s path and the global thread that has run through it. Thank you to Roy L. Douthitt for his reflection.

One is never sure about one's impact; however, if we as students, teachers, or scholars share our experiences with others perhaps that sharing will encourage others to seek out international opportunities, be they as a volunteer, a mentor, a teacher, or an administrator.

I grew up in a very small Oklahoma town and graduated with 51 others. I had never traveled far from home and had never met a 'foreigner' or even an American who has traveled extensively in the USA much less internationally. At university as a political science major I was exposed to international issues for the first time. I joined the Model UN group and quite amazingly became the leader of the first group from OSU to ever attend the Model UN in New York city. Perhaps that experience launched my interest in 'the world'. In August of 1968 I arrived in Libya as a Peace Corps Volunteer to be one of the first teachers to initiate the government of Libya's new English language plan. That plan called for English to be taught beginning in the 5th grade level and each year grow the program by expanding it to the next grade level. With this plan Libya had hoped to see its first bilingual students graduate in 1975. The plan was well thought out. However, no one could have forseen the revolution that would occur on September 1st of 1969.

Any impact I made on those 33 students that I taught did not last long. But, I felt the impact of that year and knew I wanted to be an international educator.

I went on to earn an MA in TEFL from the American University in Cairo, and MA in Early Childhood Education, and a PhD in International-Intercultural Development Education. Those degrees allowed me to be an active international educator in Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Vietnam as well as in North Carolina. My career is coming to an end as I will soon retire. However, as I look back at my career I owe so much to the Peace Corps as that experience led me to find my pathway as an adult.

Submitted by Roy L. Douthitt, PhD