Today we’d like to introduce you to Luisa Acevedo.
Hi Luisa, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Bogotá, Colombia 29 years ago in a large family from the coffee region. My mom and dad grew up in the middle of a coffee farm surrounded by mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and warmhearted people. They learned about hard work at a very young age and learned how to fight hard to pursue their dreams. I grew up admiring them as professionals, as parents, and as human beings. They taught me about humbleness, service, and love and I think that is why I decided to dedicate my life to serving others as a teacher.
As soon as I graduated from high school, I started my B.A. in Modern Languages at the age of 17. Although my high school friends were going into other fields such as economics, engineering, or architecture, I never doubted for a second my decision of becoming a teacher, despite the comments and the unfortunate reality my profession has always faced. During my college years, I learned about morphology, syntaxis and at the same time, I learned how to prepare young humans for life through the teaching of foreign languages.
I graduated at the age of 21 and by that time I had already started my first job as a Middle School English teacher in a private school in a rural area close to Bogotá. My first years as a teacher were not easy at all, I had to learn the hard way on many occasions. However, I couldn’t be more grateful for this school and the opportunity they gave me at such a young age without even being graduated from college.
I spent almost three years teaching at this school when I received a job offer I couldn’t disregard. I was going to be the first French teacher at this school and I was going to have the responsibility of designing the whole curriculum and materials from scratch. I was more than excited to accept this job offer and enjoyed every moment of the experience. Three years later I decided to join the Participate Learning ambassador community and that is how I left all my life behind to become a teacher in the United States of America.
I am now starting my 4th year as a teacher in the US and this has been the most life-changing experience I have ever lived in my entire life. I met a whole new family, I embraced a completely different culture and I learned more about myself than anywhere else. I survived a pandemic in another country, being away from my family and the ones I love, and yet I made the best out of this uncertain moment we all lived. I decided to start a project I had been dreaming about for years. I became online support for teachers around the world, more specifically in Latin America.
Using Instagram and other social media I started to upload short videos teaching them how to use basic tech tools that were going to make their lives as teachers a lot easier. I decided to partner with a teacher friend and we started to train teachers, launching live sessions about different educational topics every week. We have grown a community of more than 10.000 educators around the world and we couldn’t be prouder.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not a smooth road at all. Being away from family has to be one of the hardest things I have ever lived in my life.
Trying to adapt to a new culture and a new system is not easy but there are so many opportunities for personal growth along the way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am now starting my 4th year as a teacher in the US and this has been the most life-changing experience I have ever lived in my entire life. I met a whole new family, I embraced a completely different culture and I learned more about myself than anywhere else. I survived a pandemic in another country, being away from my family and the ones I love, and yet I made the best out of this uncertain moment we all lived. I decided to start a project I had been dreaming about for years.
I became online support for teachers around the world, more specifically in Latin America. Using Instagram and other social media I started to upload short videos teaching them how to use basic tech tools that were going to make their lives as teachers a lot easier. I decided to partner with a teacher friend and we started to train teachers, launching live sessions about different educational topics every week. We have grown a community of more than 10.000 educators around the world and we couldn’t be prouder.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Education changes every single day and as teachers, we need to adapt to this as well. We need to learn from our students, from society, and from education on a daily basis.
In the past few years, education had to switch from a totally in-person methodology to an online environment where everything was new. The entire world felt the need of learning about the use of technology and I think that is where the industry is going over the next years.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edigicket/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Education/Digicket-103119821799797/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuisaAcevedoL
