When Ann Monroe-Baillargeon, assistant professor of education, traveled to Thailand last summer, she had a bit of extra baggage. This excess was related—though not in the usual way—to having two teenage daughters in tow. In addition to their own personal baggage, the threesome carried four extra suitcases packed with school supplies contributed by members of the Warner community and the Staples store in Henrietta. Their mission was to deliver packets of supplies to Burmese school children living in Mae La, a refugee camp near the border city of Mae Sot. The venture was inspired by a desire to make their return to the camp more meaningful.

No stranger to international travel, Monroe-Baillargeon has spent part of the past seven summers teaching in developing countries as an adjunct professor for the graduate global studies program of the College of New Jersey (TCNJ). Her last four assignments have taken her to Bangkok. She and her daughters, Emma, 17, and Martha, 16, made their first visit to Mae La three summers ago at the invitation of a former TCNJ student who lived near the camp and worked for Partners Development and Relief, a nongovernmental organization that supports the Mae La relief effort. As the family prepared to return a third time, they felt a need for a greater sense of purpose.

“We didn’t want to go simply as visitors or tourists,” says Monroe-Baillargeon. “Each year we look to increase our involvement both in terms of learning and service. As we planned this year’s trip, we asked ourselves what we could do for the people we had come to know there,” she explains. A newsletter from Partners offered the direction needed. When they learned how little it took to meet the basic educational needs of the school children in the camp, they decided to launch a campaign among friends and colleagues and deliver the proceeds themselves. A few strategic e-mails and a few trips to Staples to pick up surplus goods allowed them to deliver more than 150 school packs to elementary schools and orphanages. Being able to make these deliveries themselves made the gift more meaningful both to the giver and the receiver.

“My daughter Emma was amazed by the impact a single pencil made on one boy,” says Monroe-Baillargeon. Seeing the value this child placed on something people in our culture would take for granted was enlightening as well as rewarding. (The success of this venture inspired Martha to establish Global Advocates, an organization to raise funds for organizations that provide relief to oppressed and displaced people through the University of Rochester’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy.)

Repeated visits to Thailand also have given Monroe-Baillargeon a chance to explore her interest in supporting the needs of teachers in inclusive educational settings. Her meetings with teachers there, who face incredible challenges with very little formal training, underscore the need for greater global outreach in the area of inclusive education. “If children with disabilities aren’t included in the regular classroom in Thailand, they have no educational opportunity at all,” she explains.

During her last visit, Monroe-Baillargeon was called upon to reassure
the director of one preschool that enrolling a boy who could not speak in her program was a sound decision. Ordinarily such a child would be turned away, but his parents’ urgings and the boy’s apparent
eagerness prompted the director to make an exception.

“I explained that it was essential to include children with disabilities because there was no way of knowing how they might benefit,” she says. “They might begin to interact in ways that no one ever expected.” In this case, there was real progress in the boy’s ability to interact with others over time.

Monroe-Baillargeon, excited about how her interest in international education will fit into her work at Warner, is seeing many powerful connections. Her current research focuses on understanding the lives of teachers in inclusive educational communities.

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