Teacher uses spring break trip to Africa to educate, inspire students
School teachers can put in long hours during the academic school year, and Jessie Yates has been following a grueling schedule for five years, while working as a teacher at Heritage High School in Wake Forest.
“There have been some days where I’ve left school at 2:30,” Yates said. “I’ve gone home and I’ve just worked on this trip or preparing for this trip until 10 o’clock at night.”
And while workers in other professions are getting ready for spring break, Yates is planning to work during her spring vacation.
She is scheduled to travel to Ghana along with 15 high school students, some of them from Heritage High as part of a trip to expose the teens to other cultures. The sojurn is put on by Operation Wisdom, a non-profit group that organizes the trip abroad once every other year.
Yates’ trip to Ghana will allow her to return to her roots.
“I told my dad when I grow up, ‘I want to do this. I want to bring Americans and I want to make sure they’re doing it the right way,’ and I was only 9 years old,” said Yates.
She said she grew up as a missionary kid in east Africa and watched her dad participate in several community service projects.
Now, Yates will share her hometown with her young students, many of whom have never traveled abroad.
“I feel like this trip is a really good opportunity to not only learn, but like be active in something that you’re passionate about,” said Arfan Warraich, a student who is joining the annual trip for the first time.
Genna Weaver participated in the 2016 trip to Africa, and she said she wanted to return to soak up more of the country’s culture.
“Now I know that I have to do that,” Weaver said. “It’s not just something I want to do or that I might do, I feel like I have to travel more.”
The students and teachers are set to spend two weeks in Ghana, handing out supplies and strengthening ties to local service organizations.
Yates will be one of three teachers leading the group, something she’s dreamed of doing since she was a child.
“I think the reason that as a 9 year old I was able to see that is because I actually lived it,” Yates said. “It was something that nobody had to teach it to me in a book, I experienced it, I saw it firsthand, it was real to me. It was my life.”
