Trip to Ireland, Iceland helps expand APA teacher's knowledge

Parrott Academy teacher Shivar Person and Anna Keith enjoy the unique geographic features of Iceland, including this dramatic waterfall in Vatnajokull National Park. 

Shivar Person traveled to Ireland and Iceland this summer to expand his understanding of Celtic culture and northern European geography. Person, an 11-year veteran of Arendell Parrott Academy’s social studies department, received a Hobgood Grant from the school to fund his travel. 

His six-day trip took him to Dublin to improve his understanding of Celtic history. In addition to visiting two castles and the Viking quarter, he saw an original John White map of colonial North Carolina on display at a museum there.  

In Iceland, Person — a social studies teacher at APA — expanded his understanding of geographic features such as glaciers, plateaus, deserts and tectonic plates. Iceland is unusual in having five of the seven most important global geographic features.  

He visited the Vatnajokull glacier, Europe’s biggest, and toured the country’s largest national park. He also visited the site east of Rykjavik where Iceland’s parliament, called the Althing, began in the 10th century. It is considered one of the oldest parliaments in the world.   

“This trip was inspiring and a great opportunity for me to learn and to bring back information for my students,” he said. “I plan to create a slide show on the Vikings that will enrich my sixth grade teaching of world history.  And I’m much better able to give my seventh graders an understanding of geographic features."