'A' is for Alaska:
Teacher to the Territory

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Anna was introduced in From Kansas Wheat Fields to Alaska Tundra and Bush Pilot Doctor. Now you get to know her directly and view Alaska through her unique experiences. Doc's prescription for adventure was flying and practicing medicine in Alaska. Anna's prescription was teaching in Alaska -- and heading farther and farther north.

Just as the Alaska spawning salmon swim upstream, so did this single woman swim against the current of a society that expected her to fit the mold of wife and mother. When this rite of passage eluded Anna Bortel, she did not bemoan her singlehood. Instead, in 1954, this young school teacher drove up the Alaska-Canada Highway from Ohio to Valdez, where snow was measured in feet and an Easter Egg hunt unheard of event.

Her curiosity wasn't quelled. She pushed farther north to an isolated Athabascan village along the Yukon River. Teaching and living in drafty Quonset huts with freezing oil lines at 50 below zero added to her teaching rigors. Discouraged? Yes. Daunted? No.

You'll smile, laugh, and shake your head in amazement as you read these heartwarming, inspiring, and captivating stories of teaching in the Territory of Alaska.

1. What qualities in a character inspire you to stretch yourself?
2. What is a Comfort Zone?
3. Specifically, what Comfort Zones did Anna move herself out from in regards to:
• Personal conveniences
• Work and career
• Friends and family
• Environment
4. What Comfort Zones would be challenged if you were to have lived in her situation?
5. What Comfort Zones have you moved out from in the past five years? One year? What were your feelings? fears?
6. What were the results of Anna challenging herself? (For her personally, as well as for individuals around her.)