Among the dozens of new employees in AUSD this summer are 14 educators from the Philippines who were hired as part of an innovative effort to fill positions during the current staffing shortage. 

 

The educators, who come from across the many islands that comprise the Philippines, are all fully credentialed. Four of the teachers are working as special education teachers here, and 10 are working as paraprofessionals.

  

Partnering with Foreign Cultural Exchange Consultants (FCEC), AUSD interviewed 60

teachers in Manila last January and then, over spring and summer, worked on the logistics of hiring them. A third company, called “Geovisions,” served as the visa sponsor.   

 

Once the educators were hired, AUSD worked with local realtors to find housing for them here on the island and contacted United Filipinos of Alameda for help  orienting the educators and helping them settle in.  

 

Educators interviewed said they came for a variety of reasons.“I wanted to visit the United States,” says Claudette Reyes, who comes from Montalban, Rizal and is now teaching preschool at ACDC. “This is the first country I have visited outside of the Philippines.” 

 

So far, she says, she is finding Alameda to be “very calming, very safe” and she is enjoying the challenge of working with such young children. “I have to be very jolly, very energetic!” she says.  

 

Hannah Arroyo, who is teaching grades K-2 at Ruby Bridges Elementary School, says she came to the US to learn about the education system here and make money for her family, which includes a husband and six-year-old son.  

 

One key difference between schools in the Philippines and schools here is the team approach, Arroyo says. “In the Philippines, there is just the teacher doing everything,” she said, “discipline, teaching, making decisions about students. Here there is a team looking at the needs of each student. I like having the different perspectives.” 

 

Both Reyes and Arroyo also want to be able to share their experiences and tools with other teachers when they return to their homes. 

 

AUSD also benefits from the exchange, stressed Love Elementary School Principal Tina Lagdamen, who lived in Quezon City for the first five years of her life and went to Manila with AUSD’s HR staff in January. “These educators are bilingual, fluent in both English and Filipino (or other Philippine languages),” she says. “They can enrich our AUSD classrooms, offer our students a broader worldview, and prepare them for a more globalized society.” 

 

In addition, she notes, “the educational approaches in the Philippines differ from those commonly used in the US. As such, these educators can offer AUSD a fresh perspective on learning and problem-solving, and their enthusiasm for working in AUSD can inspire and engage those of us who work alongside them.” 

 

Principal Lagdamen also helped orient the new hires in August and has been liaising with other administrators. “As a Filipino-American, I am so incredibly proud that they are here to share the best of the Filipino values,” she says. “The Philippines is a collective society. It's important to help our neighbors and family in times of need. We say, ‘Bayanihan -kung sama-sama’ (we are together, we can do it).” 

 

Each of the educators we talked to mentioned some homesickness but said that being able to video call helps. “I miss them very much,” Reyes said of her brother, parents, and dog. “But at least I can see them when we are talking.” 

 

Adds Jovany Docusin, who will work as a paraprofessional at Maya Lin School, "I am the first generation in my family to visit the US, so I can't wait to tell them everything I learned here!"