Page 12 - Fall 2019 Newsletter

FOCUS ON

FACULTY

Traci Storti

Class of 1988

By Nancy Ketch ‘82
Traci Storti '88, 3rd from the left in front, poses with her students
Houlton High School has a history of fantastic teachers. in front of the Louvre in April 2018 during their trip to Europe.
All of us, as alums, can list off several teachers that Traci's son Alex '19 is in the upper left and daughter Anessa '18 is
inspired us and left an impact on our education. These in the upper right.
are the teachers who have a true passion for educating
students and playing a part in guiding them to be productive adults.

That tradition of excellence at HHS continues with Traci Storti, who serves as a Spanish teacher. Traci has been a teacher at
her alma mater for approximately 22 years. She started out teaching Spanish with her scheduled mixed with English. She then
taught English full time for 10-12 years before returning exclusively to Spanish.

As a Spanish teacher, Traci has shown her students that education happens both inside and outside the classroom. With that
philosophy in mind, she escorts her students on trips to Europe every 2 years so they can really exercise their application
of language. The trips provide more than language education, though.

"You can really see the kids open up over the 10 days." Storti said. She added that,

"Their leadership skills evolve, too."

Traci feels these trips help to build global citizens stating that, "They come back with a greater understanding of the world and
people."

She added that "They are empowered to travel even more."

Traci is very proud of the fact that four of her students who traveled on the school trips went on to participate in the Rotary
Youth Exchange program which further exposes the students to other cultures and allows them to see that

"the world is not nearly as scary as they may have thought" and that

"they can handle these experiences."

Traci explains that there is a small amount of politics involved in the trips in exposing the students to new cultures, but that
real life is "not what is in the media."

The students interact with everyday people in the countries that they visit. She adds that they don't intend to change
an individual's politics. They want the students to acknowledge that there are multiple sides to an issue and that it's important
to see all sides. Traci believes these trips are about more than language. They teach the students communication skills and also

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