JACKSON TWP — Jim Lucot, who teaches U.S. history and government at Seneca Valley Senior High School and Holocaust studies at Butler County Community College, said his trip to Greece to study the Holocaust has made him a better teacher.

“It’s much more applicable. It’s much more accessible. It’s much more adaptable,” Lucot said.

His and four other Seneca Valley teachers’ trips were sponsored by Classrooms Without Borders, a program from the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh.

Those teachers met Tuesday with other educators interested in going on a trip sponsored through that program.

For the summer of 2020, the foundation will help fund another five trips for Seneca secondary teachers, with the Seneca Valley Foundation covering the difference, Superintendent Tracy Vitale said.

Vitale said the trips with CWB are in line with a her goal of promoting students’ and teachers’ global awareness and global competence, and used her own experience — she traveled to Finland and Estonia to study their schools — to encourage teachers to apply.

“It was just a life-changing experience, undoubtedly,” Vitale said. “So, coming back from that, you have to know I’m definitely the cheerleader for world travel.”

Lucot and Lilia Pries, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, joined the Greece trip and spoke on the unusual perspective studying the Holocaust in that nation gave them.

“It’s a different type of trip. We still get to learn about the Holocaust, about the Jewish experience during World War II,” Pries said. “But every time I said to somebody I was going to Greece to learn about the Holocaust experience, people would say, ‘There’s a Holocuast experience in Greece?’ So it’s really different.”

Pries agreed with Lucot in that the trip has had an effect on her method of teaching as well.

“Every day ended with talking about what’s best for kids, talking about the best way to get these messages across,” she said. “And so many people have such different experiences. In fact, I used one in class today that just unexpectedly came out.”

The three other teachers traveled to Poland, which Bethel Park Superintendent Nancy Aloi called the “seminal” CWB trip.

Rebecca Beers, who teaches 11th-grade American literature, said her trip made her knowledge of the Holocaust more “real.”

“I had read all these stories about the Holocaust, but they had almost just become stories,” Beers said. “So being there and being with Howard (Chandler, Holocuast survivor) ... it just made it really real.”

That sentiment was echoed by Ezekiel Stroop, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade gifted education. Stroop added the experience is worthwhile for any educator.

“It’s something that everyone should see and should do,” he said. “Just being around Howard, just how long are we going to have this opportunity? ... When we were in Auschwitz, I tried to stand by his side pretty much every moment I could because the side stories that were brought up and to see his reaction ... you just don’t see that anywhere else.”