CURRENT POSITION Media Specialist, Oak Lawn Hometown Middle School, IL DEGREE Master of Science with Middle School Specialization, Walden University, 2008 FAST FACT McCarthy’s favorite quote is by Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Photo by Michael A. Foley

Global Reach

Heather McCarthy teaches in the way great leaders lead: by example. Through her global travels, McCarthy introduces her students to people and places that differ from their experiences in the Chicago suburbs.

During her 19 years as an English language arts teacher, McCarthy used literature to instill empathy in her students. By any measure, she was making an impact, but she wondered if she could do more. “I was reaching about 100 students a year,” she recalls. “Then I realized that as a librarian, I would have the opportunity to reach a broader audience, thereby amplifying my potential to effect positive change.” McCarthy now works with more than 1,100 middle school students annually as a school media specialist, empowering each one to become a changemaker through service-learning initiatives.

One such service-learning opportunity followed her visits to Rwanda and Malawi, where McCarthy worked on clean water projects. When she returned to her library, she brought to life Linda Sue Park’s novel, A Long Walk to Water, by sharing photos, videos, and personal stories, helping her students understand how the lack of clean water affects children’s education and physical and mental health. She then organized 6K races as fundraisers, since six kilometers (approximately 3-¾ miles) is the average distance girls in Africa must walk in a day to retrieve water. Her motto? “We walk so they don’t have to.” Together, McCarthy, her students, and the community have raised more than $50,000 for clean water projects in Africa. 

Through her volunteer work at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, McCarthy developed STEM lessons around prosthetics that could help Thailand’s vulnerable pachyderm population. This summer, McCarthy will take her third trip to Africa, on invitation from Dr. Tererai Trent, to join a select leadership team visiting the schools Trent and Oprah Winfrey opened in Zimbabwe. As in the past, McCarthy will use this experience to educate her students. In connection with that invitation, McCarthy is writing a chapter on leveraging literature to promote community service for an anthology, Women Making a Difference, launching in London later this year.

As to what initiative she’ll spearhead next, it’s up to her students. “My approach centers on amplifying student voice,” McCarthy says. A recent project benefiting a local children’s hospital was the idea of a student whose sibling was a patient. As McCarthy tells her students, “In the library, everything is possible."