Something special happens when a former student of Township returns to share his/her experiences with current students. Teachers know that one way to bring their class alive is to have a guest speaker connect with their students and become a valuable resource to supplement course curriculum. If that speaker is also a Township graduate, the connection is truly special. Manheim Township Educational Foundation helps teachers to find these extraordinary people.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a local author discuss writing techniques with a sixth grade English class? Or maybe invite an attorney to the middle school to assist in a mock trial with a social studies class? The author and the attorney did come to Township, and gave back to their school even as they enriched the educational experience of many students.

In addition to these two guest speakers, Manheim Township Educational Foundation has arranged for many other volunteers to share their expertise, knowledge or experiences with Township students. Here are a few examples:

• A local architect arranged for a gifted education class from the middle school to visit his office to see first-hand what an architect does. The class toured the facilities, looked over blue prints, learned about the design process and later visited an actual site where one of the architect's designs was coming to life.
• Another middle school social studies teacher wanted to teach his class about global positioning systems. He was put in touch with a Lancaster GPS professional who helped the students to map out the area surrounding their school building and learned first-hand about this fascinating topic.
• A high school class was studying world cultures, and requested that MTEF find a speaker with experience traveling in the Middle East and Far East, and with knowledge of eastern religions. Through an article written in the M. T. Alumni Newsletter, the Educational Foundation connected with a recent graduate of Township named Allison. Allison was attending college, and wrote that she would soon be going on a "Semester at Sea" to study other cultures and religions. Once on her voyage, she communicated with this high school World Cultures class the entire next semester as she traveled. The class received live email accounts of her travels, including wonderful descriptions of the countries she visited, the people she encountered, and the religions she was exposed to. The class kept track of Allison's trip on the world map in their room. As this former Township student learned about other cultures, our current high school students learned too. Upon Allison's return to the United States at the close of her college semester, she came to Manheim Township to meet her pen-pal class face to face and shared even more of her amazing experiences.
• Two banking and investment speakers dropped in on a high school Family and Consumer Management class to discuss the real-life values of saving and budgeting money.

If you or someone you know is interested in sharing your travel experiences, career skills, or expertise in a particular field, you may contact MTEF. Just email Julie Merrill, Executive Director at: Julia_Merrill@mtwp.net