Elementary Education Professor Peggy Fraser, r., unexpectedly encountered Metro State alum Ron Frisinger, l., in Tirana, the capital of Albania.

Elementary Education Professor Peggy Fraser traveled to Albania May 30-June 5 to speak to education students at the University of Shkodra, by invitation of the university’s president. While there she also visited Tirana International School. Both occasions provided unexpected experiences for the international traveler, who has a history of developing educational travel-abroad programs.

Fraser concedes that on her first trip to Albania, a Muslim-majority country, she did not know what to expect. But what she experienced was “the most incredible week of my life. The country is in such transition,” she says. “The people 's homes just got the Internet a year ago, the new airport a year ago and the roads are a mess. But, they are working on it.

“There is a real window of opportunity right now. There is such a need,” Fraser says.

Though she had prepared notes for her lecture to 35 Albanian  university education students, her instincts told her to go back to the basics. “I scrapped all my notes. I went with the first premise in education, starting with the worth of a child and educating all children,” says Fraser.

One notion that was truly a wonder for the Albanian student teachers, she says, was using positive reinforcement, rather than negative, for elementary students. She brought along concrete examples to show, including certificates. “They had no idea. They don’t do little rewards or certificates,” says Fraser. “They were so open to it and excited. I didn’t expect it. We have a lot in common – a passion for children and a passion for the belief that education can actually change the world.”

Metro State meets Metro State
While in Albania, Fraser asked if she could visit an English-speaking school. She was taken to Tirana International School (TIS), where she had her second unexpected experience: meeting a Metro State alumnus. Ron Frisinger, who graduated in the mid-1980s with a B.A. in K-12 physical education, is director of instruction at TIS. He talked with @Metro via e-mail about the chance meeting.

Frisinger had been told that the school was going to have a visit from a college or university in Denver. “Scott D'Alterio, the director of the school, thought it was Denver University,” Frisinger writes. “Later that day, as I was walking through campus, I saw our visitors and stepped up to introduce myself. We were both a bit shocked as I said to [Dr. Fraser] that I had graduated from Metro. She said ‘No way!’”

“I have regularly been happily surprised to see how Metro has grown through the years,” writes Frisinger, who has kept track of Metro State.

Frizinger’s road to Albania took several turns, including teaching assignments in Crested Butte, Colo.; Sanaa, Yemen; and Kyiv, Ukraine.

“I always knew that I had received an excellent, useful education from Metro and I am glad to see that Metro has grown to be such a well-recognized college. It was a pleasure and a surprise to meet someone from Metro State clear over in Albania.”

“I gave him a Roadrunner pin,” Fraser says.