Hello everyone, my name is Stephanie and I am set to participate in the Teach in China Program through API this year. I am excited to blog about this opportunity and look forward to all of the experiences, challenges, and opportunities this will bring. I wanted to start off by giving you all a little bit of background on myself and why I chose this program.
Since I was a youngster I have had the travel bug. When I was four years old, my mom and I travelled to Honduras. I know, it sounds like an odd place to travel, especially at such a young age, but my mom had lived there when she was in the Peace Corps. From a young age, I began to understand how I lived differently than someone from another culture and learned how to appreciate those differences.
Fast forwarding to my college years and I was blessed with the opportunity to study abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico the summer after my second year and Valladolid, Spain, in the spring semester of my third year. Living abroad provided me with wonderful opportunities to live in an entirely new culture, hone in my Spanish-speaking skills, and challenge myself in so many ways. From learning how to read a map and successfully navigate a new city to understanding how to plan a trip to adapting to different situations and remain flexible when issues occurred; I developed as a person so much from these experiences.
After college, I had a couple of years off from school and decided to enter into a Master’s program for Student Affairs Administration (college student advising and development and so much more) and graduated in May (Yay!). During that time, I re-discovered my passion for international education, and study abroad specifically, as a wonderful way for students to learn about themselves and the world around them. I also added more stamps to my passport with personal travel on my breaks to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil and Argentina. I even attended the Men’s World Cup and saw my first ever soccer game. Go big or go home right?!
As I entered into my last semester of graduate school I contemplated what my next steps were. I knew that I wanted to eventually work in international education but also wanted more experience abroad. I looked into opportunities in Spain but also saw the value of going to a place in the world that was entirely new and different from the experiences I already had. Luckily for me, working in an office of international education in graduate school provided me with lots of information about going abroad again.
It was at that time that researched teaching opportunities through API because our office partnered with them. The program in China intrigued me because I currently do not have much experience in that part of the world. I also saw that experience in countries in Asia is becoming more necessary for someone who would like to work in international education as programs expand to this part of the world. The staff at API were great at helping in my decision to apply. From answering my preliminary questions to guiding my in deciding to teach in China; I am so grateful for their guidance and knowledge about the program, requirements, etc. I am so excited to see where this opportunity leads me in the future and what will happen in the next year!
Stephanie is teaching abroad with API in China.
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