International exchange teachers earn local distinctions

This article was written for our sponsor, Participate Learning

After teaching for 20 years in Peru, Orosia Cortez came to North Carolina as part of a unique Ambassador Teacher program with a desire to represent her country and culture, to build ties with her U.S. students and community, and continue to hone her craft.

She succeeded in every one of these areas and last year, Cortez was recognized as one of three Participate Learning Teachers of the Year for her hard work in the classroom.

Participate Learning’s Teacher of the Year program identifies teachers who have shown outstanding commitment to students and community and demonstrate a global perspective in their teaching.

A teacher at Western Union Elementary School in Union County, Cortez spent years teaching in the public and private school systems in Peru before going abroad as part of Participate Learning’s cultural exchange opportunity as an Ambassador Teacher. And she’s so glad she did. In addition to earning Participate Learning’s distinction, Cortez was invited to be part of the North Carolina Teacher Leadership Council representing teachers across the state.

This kind of honor is not uncommon for Ambassador Teachers. Just being selected to be part of the Participate Learning program means that the teachers were already amongst the top of their field from all over the world. The application process is rigorous and dedicated to finding the best people to positively impact students.

More often than not, it means there is a sense of drive within these teachers as well. While in the program, Cortez earned her master’s degree in teaching English as a Second Language and she was a featured speaker at the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina Conference.

While ambitious in her goals, she said the knowledge she received from working within the classroom was the most valuable.

"This experience gave me the opportunity to learn new strategies to develop reading skills, different math techniques I never saw before, to get to work with small groups of students and learn to analyze data in test results to plan programs to help students improve in reading and math skills," she explained.

She also learned how to support students who come to the U.S. without speaking English and make them successful. "My dreams came true," she said.

One of those dreams certainly was to be named a Teacher of the Year, something she attributed to loving her job so much.

"I think that my success is based on my passion for my job," she explained. "My lessons were always based on sharing my culture and developing the language skills of my students. Being a Teacher of the Year makes me feel more confident about myself. I feel a great responsibility as an Ambassador Teacher and an inspiration to others."

Meet Teacher of the Year Anayansi Young

It’s not that surprising that Anayansi Young became a teacher. After all, she grew up watching her mom enjoy a career in education.

But what is a little surprising for Young is where education has taken her.

Young, who is from Honduras, teaches fourth grade in the Spanish Dual Language Program at William H. Owen Elementary in Cumberland County. She came to the school via Participate Learning’s Ambassador Teacher Program and, in 2022, was named a Participate Learning Teacher of the Year.

Like Cortez, her accolades did not come from Participate Learning alone. She also received her school’s 2022 Certified Staff of the Month award for December and she was the 2023 STARward STEM primary project winner for a class project she worked on with students.

The project, which encouraged innovation and awarded winners with the honor of having their project sent to the International Space Station, was a natural fit for Young, who originally wanted to be an environmental engineer. When there was a need for a substitute teacher at her mom’s school, she stepped in and the rest, as they say, is history.

After teaching in Honduras for 11 years, one of Young’s friends who had just taught abroad, suggested she look at Participate Learning’s program. She received an offer from Owen Elementary in Fayetteville. The school wanted her to come in to teach with their Spanish immersion program. The program, she said, never had a fifth grade class and it would be her responsibility to move the program to that grade level.

She said she loved the experience at Owen and stayed in the program for five years, which is the maximum time someone can spend in it. The U.S. State Department supports the program, which provides J1 Visas for teachers for up to five years.

After completing five years with the program, she went back to Honduras to teach and applied many of the things she learned through her Participate Learning experience in her new classroom.

"I went and got my masters, taught in Honduras for two years and then reapplied to the Participate Learning program again," she explained.

A new principal at the same school she taught at in the United States — Owen Elementary — called her and asked if she’d like to come back.

She’s now in her third year at Owen and has plans to stay through her fifth year, again.

"We have family and ties in Honduras, so we’re planning on going back there after this ends," Young said.

Being back at Owen has been a wonderful experience for Young as she’s been able to connect with some of the students she taught when she was here on her first visa.

"Some of my former students found out that I was back and their families have contacted me; it was just really exciting to see them," she said. "They’ll share with me how they have traveled and used Spanish."

Young also shared that some of her former students told her they remembered she was from Honduras and when their family shopped at a Hispanic grocery store they insisted their parents buy some of the foods that Young talked about in her class.

"Some of those students have aspirations to study abroad because of me," she said.

Meet Teacher of the Year Hanxuan Zhang

Learning has always been a priority for Hanxuan Zhang, a self-proclaimed lifelong learner who is always looking for ways to challenge herself. That love of learning led her to become a teacher. She started her career in Chengdu, China, where she taught for four years. And that need to challenge herself helped motivate her to apply to teach in the United States.

A family friend told her how committed Participate Learning is to supporting teachers throughout their cultural exchange, so she applied. For the last five years she’s taught kindergarten at Stough Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh. As someone who likes to push herself, Zhang identifies with the effort and success she sees in her students.

"Every year the new kindergarteners just amaze me with how much they can learn," she said.

This year Zhang – who also goes by Karenna – gave her students what she feared might be too big of an assignment: to create an audiobook that they would write and then read aloud in both English and Mandarin.

"They are only five or six years old, but they each made a book eight pages long that they spent roughly two months to complete," she said. "They valued it and wanted to do their best. I don’t think they even saw it as homework, but work where they could develop themselves. I just felt so proud of them."

One thing she has most appreciated about teaching in the United States is having so many opportunities to improve as a teacher. Not only has she learned new skills and teaching approaches, but teaching in a different country has given her more self confidence.

"I am more confident in my professionalism and feel comfortable to teach my own way," she said. "I have become more objective in that I take a big picture view of education and to empathize with different cultures. I think I am truly putting students at the center now, that all my teaching plans, materials, and project preparations are based on my students."

She is grateful for being named as a Participate Learning Teacher of the Year, but feels especially blessed for all the other great teachers and people she has met through her exchange experience.

"Every moment increases my energy and encourages me to keep going," she said. "I regard teaching and education as my lifelong career."

This article was written for our sponsor, Participate Learning