Two high school teachers will be bringing a global perspective to their classrooms this school year since getting to travel and teach abroad after winning a Fulbright award.

Lisa-Erika James, who teaches theater at Talent Unlimited HS on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and Marc Martorana, an ELA and social studies teacher at Pathways to Graduation HS in Harlem, were the only two New York City public school teachers to receive the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program award for the 2023–2024 school year.

The Fulbright recipients got to travel abroad for two weeks as part of an international educational exchange program, with the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research and exchange ideas with their educator counterparts overseas. James and Martorana were part of a cohort of 65 educators from across the United States chosen to receive the honor, which was awarded based on academic merit and leadership potential.

James and Martorana traveled to Morocco, where they had the opportunity to teach in separate cities, Fes and Taroudant, respectively.

Martorana, who has been a New York City teacher for eight years, said the program “reinvigorated my commitment to teaching and its universal importance.”

He said he plans to use what he learned from his experience overseas “to prepare my students to think about themselves in relation to their role as local and global citizens.”

James, who has taught for 20 years, said the Fulbright award was “the hallmark” of her career. “To really push myself in this way during my 20th year teaching was incredibly professionally rewarding,” she said.

James said she hopes to create a cross-cultural exchange between a classroom of students in Morocco and her students at Talent Unlimited.

In her American Voices class, she said, her students learn history through plays. She plans to ask both her own students and the Morocco students to create plays that home in on a historical event that has taken place during their lifetimes. She plans to present the plays in a virtual playwriting festival.

To learn more about the Fulbright program or to apply, visit the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program.