Swedish Student Doing U of A Internship Is Named an Arkansas Traveler

Jake Ayo

Jesper Vackmyr, left, was honored with an Arkansas Traveler certificate requested by Terry Still, his mentor teacher at Woodland Junior High School

Jesper Vackmyr of Sweden was apprehensive when he learned that the subject he would be teaching during a four-week internship at Woodland Junior High in Fayetteville was Arkansas history.

"I didn't know one thing about Arkansas," he said.

Vackmyr arrived in Fayetteville on April 1 as part of an exchange program the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas has with Jönköping University in Sweden. Terry Still, the seventh-grade teacher at Woodland serving as Vackmyr's mentor, came to the rescue.

"She is so knowledgeable and a wonderful mentor," Vackmyr said.

Still also applied to the Arkansas Secretary of State's office for her student-teacher from a faraway land to be designated an Arkansas Traveler. The honorary designation recognizes visitors to Arkansas and asks them to serve as an ambassador for the state as they travel to other states and countries.

It's based on a story from the 1840s about a visitor from Little Rock who gets lost in Arkansas and asks for help at a cabin where a man isn't very helpful until the traveler shows him the second half of a fiddle tune he had been playing. The first presentation of the certificate was made in 1941 to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.

"I was absolutely shocked and very honored," Vackmyr said.

Still presented the certificate to him Monday in front of a gathering at Woodland.

"I texted my family and friends already," he said the next day. "I also am going to say to people they should visit Arkansas if they get a chance."

Vackmyr plans to teach history and religious science in Sweden after he finishes his degree at Jönköping University.