Five hour time difference, 3568 miles away and a seven and a half hour flight away. English teacher Niki Holmes is one of 76 teachers accepted into a program to teach in Scotland at the beginning of next year.

Although AHS loses Holmes to Scotland next year, Scotland will be brought to AHS. In exchange for Holmes next year, a teacher from Scotland will be filling in for her as the two of them will be trading spots with each other for the 2012-2013 school year. The other teacher will be a new ninth grade teacher, while Holmes will be a seventh grade teacher.

“I most wanted to go to Scotland [out of all the 155 options],” Holmes said. “I’ve never been to Scotland; I’ve been to 38 countries but never Scotland.”

“I became aware of some of the other programs that were available, and so I started to apply while we had a Fulbright exchange person here last year from Hungary,” Holmes said. “I had a conversation with my husband and ‘I want to do this.’”

Holmes will be traveling alone next year, but getting periodic visits from loved ones. Her husband is not able to take the year off to travel with her due to work complications.

Holmes applied to the Fulbright program last year in hope of spending a year abroad after a breathtaking experience she had teaching in Brazil earlier in her teaching career, but being accepted into the program is not the easiest task. First, she was accepted into the program, and then she waited a few months to have a quick phone interview. The last step was finding a match that could take her place here at AHS next year.

“I’ve always been interested in the international world of education and how they are doing it with each student at a different level,” Holmes said.

With the end of the 2011-2012 school year, Holmes is rapidly finishing out the year with all her IB classes and getting ready to spend her summer on vacation with her husband before she takes off for Scotland.

“I have 15 pages of to-dos and everyday I try to cross off one,” Holmes said. “I have to decide what I’m going to pack, what I’m not going to pack, and close up all my business here.”

Although AHS will miss Ms. Holmes next year while she is overseas, we will have the opportunity to make AHS more diverse and aware of other cultures out there.