Where Dedication Meets Discovery: Celebrating Faculty Through the Patterson-Strauss Travel Grant

By: Melanie Young `29

The Patterson-Strauss Travel Grant is an incredible opportunity that celebrates Cincinnati Country Day School faculty who have served the school for at least 15 years. The grant gives two long-tenured faculty members the opportunity to enrich their travel experiences. To date, 39 members of the Country Day faculty have received this distinction. The recipients of the grant for the 2024-25 school year were Rachel Corwin, a middle and upper school French teacher, and Matt Dahl, an upper school science teacher, with 24 and 30 years of service to the school, respectively. The grant was named in honor of Bob Patterson and Tony Strauss, two veteran faculty members who gave a great deal to CCDS.

Corwin was inspired to apply “by other colleagues who have been awarded the travel grant” and was “excited to have the opportunity to travel to places that I might not otherwise have the chance to visit.” She said that simply the existence of the grant is important to her, as “it shows the school values and appreciates long-tenured faculty and gives teachers a chance to come back to school in the fall refreshed, with new experiences to incorporate into the curriculum.” Corwin spent her two-week trip traveling to France and Greece, with her husband and daughter. Their trip started in France, which Corwin said was perfection. “I would move there if I could. I hope to, one day, when I retire.” The second week of their journey was spent in Greece. They visited a small town by the name of Nafplio, where, Corwin reported, there was a surprisingly large number of French speakers. This made communicating a lot easier. Visiting the rest of this new country, however, came with a difficult barrier. “It’s very humbling to be in a country where you don’t speak the language. When I’ve traveled outside the United States it’s typically been where people have either spoken enough English or spoken French and I haven’t really experienced the discomfort that comes with not speaking the language. The places that we went to in Greece....hardly anyone spoke English, and I don’t speak any Greek, and so that was exciting, but, at the same time, terrifying."

Corwin said the whole experience expanded her global mindset. “It helped reinforce the idea that everyone comes from different places and to be open-minded about new experiences. Being able to step outside of the classroom, gain a new perspective, and then come back to apply all of it to what and how I teach gave me fresh excitement."

The other recipient of the grant, Matt Dahl, spent his time primarily in Italy, with his wife, daughter, and sister-in-law. A personal connection to both Patterson and Strauss motivated him to apply for the grant, as well as “the opportunity to get out of the school environment and pursue something interesting to me professionally, as well as go someplace interesting.” Dahl said he was “very grateful to have been selected for the award. I knew both Mr. Patterson and Mr. Strauss a while back, and I’m thankful to have known them.” Dahl toured Rome and then went on a cruise that went around the coast of Italy, including crossing over to Sicily before coming back across the countries of Montenegro and Croatia. He had the opportunity to visit historic locations, like Pompeii, the Vatican, and the Colosseum, but said his favorite part of the trip was visiting Rome. “Historically, it’s incredible; but also, the art is incredible, and the architecture is incredible. Everywhere, there was art and architecture…every building we were in was older than this country we call home. Also, so many discoveries happened in Italy, and to be in that sort of historical environment, to see artwork that you’ve studied in high school and college, it’s hard to describe how different it is to experience it firsthand as opposed to seeing a picture of it projected in a lecture hall.” Dahl states that it is important that Country Day offers this opportunity to teachers because “it is an invigorating process that gets you excited about coming back to school and sharing what you’ve learned. For me, it got me even more excited about teaching, but also about learning.”