Local Spanish teacher supports education in Guatemala

OSSEO, Wis. (WEAU) - One local Spanish teacher is taking her knowledge and love for learning overseas.

As a member of the Bucks County Organization for Intercultural Advancement (BCOIA), she’s sharing how supporting education in diverse cultures makes a difference.

A summer retreat to Colombia was a life-changing experience for Osseo-Fairchild’s Spanish teacher, Kayla Velasquez.

“Called ‘Experiencia Colombia’ and it was a week long professional development, linguistic immersion, cultural immersion workshop." she said.

During ‘Experiencia Colombia’, Velasquez was able to form friendships with staff in the Bucks County Organization for Intercultural Advancement, where she earned an opportunity to go on their annual mission trip to Guatemala.

“I’m one of 11 board of directors now of Bucks County and really our mission is to expand and broaden opportunities for education in Guatemala.” she said.

She says education in Guatemala was a bit shocking, visiting schools and seeing the amount of limited resources they had.

“But a lot of the furniture in the classroom, a lot of the materials and the resources were rather old, worn down. One of the teachers showed us a makeshift white board that she crafted out of cardboard and saran wrap.” she said.

Through the organization, more advanced resources like whiteboards were able to go into the schools. She said “The kids and the teachers were very very grateful for whatever they had to be able to use to learn in the classroom.”

Making an impact overseas, but also right here in western Wisconsin.

Superintendent of Osseo-Fairchild School District, Lori Whelan, said what this meant back in the community.

“She’s able to bring back what she learned from the education system over there, and enrich her classroom through culture but also sharing the experience of what education looks like here in the United States versus what education looks like in Guatemala. It really helps students understand what a gift education is, and what they’re receiving.” she said.

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