This article was written by Dr. Steve Thorpe, former China Project Coordinator at SPICE in the 1980s and Professor Emeritus of Education at Southern Oregon University. This is the third of several articles—focusing on the 50-year history of SPICE—that will be posted this year.

Congratulations to Gary Mukai and his SPICE team upon the 50th anniversary of the SPICE program! Congratulations also to David Grossman and his colleagues who created the SPICE program in 1976!

Throughout my career in education, I have benefited from my connections to the SPICE program. I first met David Grossman and his SPICE group in 1976 when they made presentations at the Association for Asian Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies annual meetings. I was dazzled by the East Asian Studies curriculum units the SPICE team demonstrated. Their curriculum units were infused with high quality Asian Studies content and interactive instructional strategies that stimulated the interest of K–12 students. This indirect connection to SPICE gave me great curriculum resources for my Asian Studies outreach work in Texas, where I lived and taught at the time.

On a short-term basis, I joined David and the SPICE team in August 1978 for an East Asian Studies teacher in-service workshop in Utah. The joy and excitement among the SPICE group was inspiring to the workshop participants and to me. I gained new insights into the strengths of the SPICE curriculum units from the presentations. I also joined David for a live radio interview about historical and contemporary events in East Asia. I had just been in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for a three-week project in April 1978, and I was able to contribute my recent in-country China experience to the workshop sessions.

After I completed a two-year teaching stint in the PRC, David Grossman hired me in early 1981 for a half-time position as the China Project Coordinator at SPICE. I also enrolled in a graduate program in the Stanford School of Education. It was an exciting time at SPICE as we joined the newly formed Bay Area Global Education Program (BAGEP). In June 1981, Kay Sandberg, the Japan Project Coordinator, and I worked with David and the BAGEP leadership to coordinate the BAGEP East Asia summer institute for teachers and administrators. The results of the summer institute were stellar, and BAGEP continued on as a superior international and cross-cultural K–12 staff development program. I helped our China Project staff develop new curriculum units as well as the “Discovering Marco Polo” teacher guidebook that went along with the Marco Polo TV mini-series, which aired on NBC in 1982. (Photo below of Steve Thorpe, Penny Thorpe, and Paddy Booz at the 1982 Marco Polo TV mini-series reception at the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco; courtesy of Steve Thorpe.)

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In 1985, I participated in a research team that evaluated the results of the BAGEP program work. Our research verified that the BAGEP staff development projects were beneficial for K–12 teachers and their students. I graduated from Stanford and moved on to a university career in teacher education. Thanks to my work with the SPICE and BAGEP programs, I was well prepared to teach good curriculum and instruction strategies for both pre-service and in-service teachers.

I have maintained connections with my SPICE colleagues. The SPICE team has always been a tight-knit group, and we have all helped one another in our professional careers. I am forever grateful for that. Indeed, SPICE continues to be the leading light for international and cross-cultural outreach education across the USA and the Asia-Pacific region. Viva, SPICE!