Today Mrs.Fuerholzer’s Junior Honors English class spoke with National Geographic Journalist Paul Salopek, who is on a seven year walk covering Africa, the middle east, and through Asia. He spoke with them from Jordan, one stop on his Out of Eden walk. In addition to speaking with Paul, these juniors also got to share this experience this with another class in Louisiana, Paul’s translator, and another employee from National Geographic. 

For the past several weeks Mrs. Fuerholzer’s students took a journey together online where they would follow Paul on his dispatches and stops on trip. Each time would Paul would travel somewhere new, or have a new story to tell, the class would complete assignments on the Out of Eden National Geographic website that would have to do with Paul and his discoveries. The Out of Eden Walk website is a National Geographic run website which basically highlights all of Paul’s stops on his walk and would track him to see where he was in the world.

After weeks of following Paul on his walk, Mrs. Fuerholzer got an email asking if her class would possibly want to be a part of a Google Hangout with Paul and other schools. Mrs. Fuerholzer did not hesitate and immediately jumped at this chance for her class to talk to this man who was giving up so much to travel the world.

Class members were excited to talk to Paul–and the fact that they got 6th,7th, and 8th period off was pretty cool too. Leading up to the discussion, the class nominated three volunteers to represent Prairie Ridge in front of Paul, National Geographic, and other classrooms across the country: Steven Diklich, Gil Anozie, and Lexie Ruscheinski. Each student had to prepare something to say to Paul about his journey, what it has meant to them or the class as whole. The pressure was definitely on.

Before the Google Hangout with Paul, there was an emotional mixture of excitement and anxiousness going on. Students had been preparing questions and comments all week for Paul and now the day was finally here.

Once connection was up and running between all the groups and Paul, everyone listened and took note of everyone’s questions and responses for Paul and his translator.

Steven Diklich was the first to speak and he talked to Paul about “how books help us to develop our thinking, but his lessons got us to develop our thoughts on the real world”.

Lexie Ruscheinski was up next to talk. She explained to Paul how “his Journey and everything he was teaching us was inspirational” and how “we should all strive to be like Paul and get out of our comfort zones and talk to new people and learn new cultures.”

Gil Anozie was last to speak for the Junior Honors english class. He talked about how the “Eden in Out of Eden walk symbolizes the garden of Eden and how it represents ourselves and our comfort zones”, and explains how “we should be able to step out of our comfort zones just like Paul has with visiting these new places and meeting all these new people”. Gil was praised by the man from National Geographic saying that Gil’s words were the one thing he would take away from this experience. Gil was even quoted on Twitter during the live chat! How exciting!

Paul was very humble and very easy to speak to. Paul listened to everyone’s responses and had a lot to say about each and every one of them with great insight and depth.

It is guaranteed that everyone in Mrs. Fuerholzer’s class can say that they had a very enjoyable experience.  “I’d say the most enjoyable experience was being able to talk to him” said classmate Betsy Nikodem, “It really made the whole experience real and made us realize how humble he truly is.”

Paul made a connection with the class and truly made this experience for them much more real and personal. Paul’s journey is far from over, but I am sure that knowing he has support from others across the globe and knowing that he has inspired a younger generation will make this experience worth wild. I’m sure that Mrs. Fuerholzer’s class will also take Paul’s teachings and make something of them in their lives.

If you’re interested at all in Paul Salopek’s journey, click on the links below to follow him on his amazing adventure!

National Geographic – Paul’s Out of Eden Dispatches

Follow Paul through Harvard’s Project Zero