Brittany Storkel ’08
Teacher
While her friends in the United States were shopping at the mall or seeing a movie, she was sitting on a cold, tile floor with a group of orphans playing Go Fish beneath the small glow of a flashlight.
“It’s tough to not have your normal ‘American lifestyle,’” Storkel said of her most recent time abroad, “but God wanted me in Haiti for a purpose. I learned a lot and felt blessed because of my efforts there.”
As an elementary and special education major at Trinity, Storkel knew she wanted to be a special education teacher, but she also wanted to be involved globally. A variety of college experiences contributed to this leading, including student-teaching in Kiev, Ukraine.
“Abroad experiences teach you things about yourself that you never knew and really open your eyes to new cultures and the world around you,” she said.
After graduation, Storkel accepted a position as an intervention specialist in the London High School Special Education Department in Ohio where she taught for a year. But during that time, she felt God leading her to pursue her dream of serving globally and “being the person ‘going’ and ‘doing’ abroad.”
She took a one-year leave from her job and headed to Haiti where she taught English to young students and lived with 13 orphans who were taken in by a missionary after the hurricanes that hit Gonaives, Haiti, in the fall of 2008.
“I learned so much about God and about depending on him,” she said. “I also grew a deep respect for the Haitian people who, despite living in poverty and facing tragedy after tragedy, are truly joyful and love and serve God with their whole heart.”
After her year of service, she returned home to Ohio and to her teaching position at London, where she currently works.