Charity Huwe, a graduate student studying elementary education, will share her “eye-opening” experience student teaching in the Netherlands Thursday.

The presentation is set for 5:30 p.m. in Room 2441 of Buzzard Hall.

During the discussion, Huwe will compare and contrast life in the Netherlands to life in the United States from her perspective, she said.

She will also discuss the school system, her teaching approach and other countries she traveled to.

Huwe taught English and art to preschoolers and children up to 12 years old at a public, Dutch-speaking school in the Netherlands.

The children perceived everything to be big in the United States, she said.

Huwe said the department of early childhood, elementary and middle level education helped her with applying to student teach abroad.

Depending on students’ majors, they can choose the top four places they want to teach.

From there, the interview process is long and intimidating because at one point she was in a room of eight people interviewing at once, Huwe said.

Huwe said the hard work of applying was worth it, though.

Six of the 12 students who applied were chosen to go overseas, she said.

One of Huwe’s top choices to study abroad in was the Netherlands, so she was happy when she was placed in the northern town of Oud-Beijerland.

She said she was happy with her placement because during World War II, her grandfather helped liberate Holland.

“I wanted to go live where he fought during the war,” Huwe said.

Huwe left the United States in October and stayed in the Netherlands until December, so she was overseas when the presidential election took place.

As a result, she was constantly asked about American politics.

She said the majority of people she met hated then President-elect Donald Trump and were interested in talking about the political aspects of America.

“They wanted to know who I was voting for,” Huwe said.

Huwe said this surprised her, because in American public schools, political opinions are not shared as freely.

When Trump won, Huwe said people kept apologizing to her and told her she could live with them in the Netherlands.

Kennedy Nolen can be reached at 581-2812 or kdnolen@eiu.edu.