My first Publication 1926874721_Alumni_Magazine_June_2010 | Page 17

Issue 3, June 2010
The second mission “marker” in terms
of our sustainability came with respect to
the property. I won’t detail all of the back-
and-forth complexities of our efforts to
re-secure the land that the College had
owned. There were very complicated
legal and political issues involved and
there were many false starts and failed
attempts to resolve the issues in the first
couple of years as the College returned
to the campus. I spent a good bit of my
time (and much of my patience) the first
two years hassling with these issues. The
most promising strategy in the beginning
was to establish a foundation with the
Prime Minister and the ACS Director
as co-presidents of the foundation. The
land (much, but not all of the original
campus) would be conveyed to the
foundation for the use of the College.
That failed when the government we
were working with “fell” suffering a vote
of no confidence from the Parliament. I
was in New York, on my way to a Board
of Trustee meeting, when I called back to
my campus office from a Times Square
telephone booth to check on things, only
to learn that the agreement I was going
to outline to the Board was no longer an
option. Another period of hopefulness
was dashed when the Minister of Justice
who was assigned by the Prime Minister
to work with us on the property issue,
died. I stood at his funeral wondering
about the concept of Justice. There were
other attempts and some very confusing
developments. I spent a good bit of time
with a Minister of Interior charged with
representing the government’s interests
who turned out to be quite sympathetic
to our claim. On the other hand, we had
a lawyer for the College who we decided
didn’t fully represent the best interests
of the College in his discussions with
the government. But, in the summer
of 1994 we reached an agreement for
the long-term use of the campus by
the College. I signed the agreement on
behalf of the College and Trustees on
the day I left Bulgaria to return to the
U.S. After signing, I left immediately for
the airport to catch my plane. I didn’t
even get a chance to return to campus
to offer final good-byes so it was with
very mixed feelings that I left that July
afternoon --satisfied to have the use and
occupancy agreement in hand, saddened
by the hasty departure.
Mrs. Whitaker, what is the most vivid
memory you have from the years
at ACS? Do you recall any culture
shocks or awkward/funny situations?
There are so many memories from those
years. As Rog has said, we lived in Sofia
in 1975-76, so I had some idea of Sofia
and Vitosha and life in Bulgaria from that
time. We began our time at ACS with great
enthusiasm and a sense of adventure.
I remember my first impression of the
campus and particularly of “the Big
House” was that it was like going into
the woods surrounding Sleeping Beauty’s
castle – heavy vines and overgrowth
covering the beautiful buildings
underneath. Sometimes some of the
teachers would go off on explorations
of the campus and return with treasures
found in the unrestored buildings. As but
one example, we found a dusty statue of
Lenin sitting on the fireplace mantel in
the President’s house.
One of my most vivid memories from
the first days of the teaching year was
how amazed our students were at the
conditions of the classrooms – the new
furniture and especially the white boards.
In each class students would ask to touch
them, try erasing them and really enjoyed
writing on them! That is hard to imagine
now, isn’t it? It is also hard to imagine just
how difficult it was to communicate with
family back in the States. There was no
internet or email and international phone
calls had to be made from a central
location in downtown Sofia – from little
booths where you could hear the person
in the next booth yelling into the phone
to his far distant relatives. That was
probably the hardest adjustment.
Shopping in Sofia was a bit of a culture
shock and a challenge, but part of the
adventure. I remember the piles of
cabbages and pumpkins along the street
in the late fall and the dried onions in the
winter when I would have paid plenty
for a green salad or some broccoli. But
oh those fresh strawberries, cucumbers
and tomatoes when they were available
in the spring! Shopping became more
of an adventure for everyone as more
goods became available and the spirit
of free enterprise took hold. New shops
sprang up throughout the city, some with
more shelves than goods, some selling
unexpected combinations of goods like
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satellite dishes and panty hose. There was
a spirit of openness and a welcoming of
change throughout the city.
But my most vivid memory of that
first year is the fellowship of working
closely everyday with a few like-minded
and committed colleagues - Bulgarian
and American. I recall riding down each
day from Simeonovo (where we had to
stay until the houses on campus were
renovated) in the blue van with the entire
American teaching staff, planning our
joint efforts - spelling bees, lessons using
rock music lyrics, deciding to teach the
rules of baseball. In the afternoons we
struggled together learning Bulgarian.
Together we planned and successfully
carried out the first Earth Day
Celebration, interscholastic trivia contest,
Green School and Christmas Concert.
We coordinated which classes would
write which research projects. Together
we were engaged in an exciting effort that
was truly bringing change and a new kind
of education to the country as it opened
up to the world. We were making it up
as we went along, and it was energizing,
challenging and just plain fun for all of us.
Mrs. Whitaker, what was the biggest
difference between your Bulgarian
students and the students you had
before?
My first job after college had been as an
ESOL teacher, but my graduate school
training was in communication disorders,
so my most recent jobs had been in
special education, helping students
who had significant communication
and learning difficulties. My students in
Bulgaria were very different: I needed to
find challenging, creative and engaging
ways to teach them and keep them
interested. But I never had to wonder if
they could learn what I asked or whether
it was too hard or whether they would do
their homework. The students I taught
those first two years in Sofia are some of
the brightest, most committed and eager
students I have ever taught. They were
being challenged by the curriculum but
also challenged to accept a new way of
learning, very different from the learning
and expectations they had had for their
first 7 years at school.
Dr. Whitaker, you have been on the
ACS Board of Trustees since 1990,