Local teacher chosen for national seminar

Agoura Hills resident Laurie Charnley, an English teacher at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard, has been selected from a national applicant pool to attend one of 28 summer study opportunities supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Endowment is a federal agency that each summer supports seminars and institutes at colleges and universities throughout the country so that teachers may study with experts in humanities disciplines.

Charnley has been teaching for 19 years in England, Scotland, Crenshaw and Beverly Hills. She has directed several plays for children, including "West Side Story" and "Romeo and Juliet." At Channel Islands High School she teaches English to sophomores, juniors and seniors.

From July 17 to Aug. 4, Charnley will participate in "Hawthorne and Longfellow: A Literary Friendship." The program, directed and facilitated by

Professor Charles Calhoun, will be at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

The 30 teachers selected for the program had to write a fourpage essay explaining their interests in the course and their educational and professional background. Each will receive a stipend of $2,400 to cover their travel, study and living expenses.

The 600 teachers who participate in these studies will teach more than 35,000 American students the following year.