Alumni Ambassador Nicole Jefferson started the new school year with a robust collection of lesson plan ideas and experiences from her Virtual Educator projects in Panama and Mexico to share with her high school students at West Harrison County School District in Gulfport, Mississippi. “I’m now incorporating more cultural aspects into my lessons as a result of my Virtual Educator projects,” Jefferson said. “For example, we’ve been learning about Panama and Mexico for Hispanic Heritage Month. After watching a documentary on the Panama Canal, my students are now working on building a mini replica of it.”
Jefferson and her students have also been studying music and foods that she learned about from participants on her projects, such as Panamanian ‘patacones,’ a kind of refried plantain. She plans to post the recipes they discuss on her school’s website for teachers and possibly on the school’s social media pages for other students to access. “I love that I can help my students expand their worldview and learn about different countries and cultures, especially because very few of my students have had the chance to travel yet,” Jefferson said.
From the time she began the Virtual Educator application, Jefferson said she knew it was a worthwhile challenge as it prompted her to “constantly reflect” on her teaching methods. “As a Virtual Educator, I improved as a professional because I was challenged to find creative and interactive ways to communicate a variety of topics,” Jefferson said. She has carried this creativity and ongoing reflection into a new role teaching high school French and Spanish for grades 9-12. She also teaches after-school ESL lessons for migrant children newly arrived in the U.S.
I’m excited about the year ahead as an Alumni Ambassador, and I hope to reach out to several K-12 candidates because I know firsthand how these kinds of exchange opportunities can enhance your teaching.
Jefferson’s English for Tourism students created videos and graphics promoting Panamanian cultural activities (left); and pictorial menus to introduce Panamanian foods (center right), after Jefferson modeled the activity by creating and sharing a menu with foods from her home region of coastal Mississippi and New Orleans (far right)
As a Virtual Educator in Panama, Jefferson’s primary duty was to equip English for Tourism adult students with skills enabling them to be successful working in the tourism industry. The project was a marketing collaboration between the Panama Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Department of State aimed at promoting tourism. Her secondary duties were creating opportunities for her students to immerse themselves in U.S. culture. The participants, many of whom started out with only basic technological know-how, were tasked with creating an online program that incorporated videos with voiceovers, specialized digital itineraries, QR codes, and radio interviews. Over the course of her two-month assignment, Jefferson saw her students gain both confidence and expertise. And she grew as well, expanding her EdTech skills and her knowledge of Panama.
For a lesson on food, Jefferson modeled the activity by sharing foods from her home region of coastal Mississippi and New Orleans, discussing the ingredients and explaining how to prepare beignets (square donuts), grits, gumbo, and jambalaya. Then, the students researched and created their own regional photo food menus to present to the class. “This was a fun learning activity that allowed my students to develop skills to help tourists with their food selections,” Jefferson said. “They are now able to describe most of the ingredients in the dishes and ask questions related to food allergies.”
For a radio broadcast lesson, Jefferson prepared her students to simulate and film a broadcast in which one student would be the host and another student would be the guest providing information on an upcoming cultural festival in Panama. The lesson served as a form of differentiated learning for her students with more advanced English language conversation skills. For their final project, the students produced short videos highlighting different aspects of Panama to promote tourism on social media. “I really enjoyed this activity because I was able to hear how my students progressed in their spoken English proficiency,” Jefferson said. “Watching those videos also helped me learn more about their culture, city, province and country.”
Jefferson visited Panama to meet the administrator of the Chamber of Commerce, and the students, teaching assistants, and staff
from the University of Colon that she worked with on her project.
While many Virtual Educators express a longing to someday visit their students and colleagues in-person, Jefferson made it happen with two personal visits to Panama. On her first visit to the city of Colón, she met with the U.S. Embassy and Chamber of Commerce staff to discuss the progress of the English for Tourism course. Afterwards, the staff had a brief reflection session with the students. At the end of the session, Jefferson made a surprise appearance to meet her students, who gave her a warm welcome. After a brief presentation by the Regional English Language Officer and Jefferson, each student gave a self-introduction.
“My visit to Panama gave me a chance to connect with my students on a deeper level,” Jefferson reflected. “It was also an opportunity for them to practice speaking English face-to-face with their instructor. I enjoyed learning about their backgrounds and touring their province.” Jefferson gave each student an authentic Mardi Gras necklace from Mississippi, and shared Mardi Gras-flavored coffee and beignet mix. One student who works as a chef prepared the beignets for his classmates to enjoy.
At the Alumni Ambassador Kick Off event and Fellow Orientation in Washington, D.C., in August, Jefferson engaged in training and sightseeing with her cohort.
On her second visit to Panama, Jefferson brought her mother, sister, and niece to learn about the country and meet her students. One of her students prepared a ‘critter-free itinerary’ that would be pleasant for her mom and 12-year-old niece. “My student made sure we were in areas where we wouldn’t see any iguanas or scorpions and so forth,” Jefferson said, explaining that for her mom critters are a deal-breaker. She hired one student to be their driver and tour guide for a day, and hired the chef who’d made beignets to give them an Afro-Panamanian cooking class and practice his English in the process. After three hours of cooking, they enjoyed the fruits of their labors with a group feast. “The food was so good and it was the first time I tried shark!” Jefferson said, reporting that it tasted like whitefish. “Since that visit, I’ve referred the driver to tourists from Florida, who really enjoyed his services,” Jefferson added.
As a Virtual Educator in Mexico in 2024, Jefferson led a ten-week English for Entrepreneurship course for thirteen alumni from the English Access Microscholarship Program. Together, the group studied the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, including vocabulary for product descriptions and pitches, advertising tools, and strategies for talking to potential investors. “I am truly privileged to have had the opportunity to teach these amazing students, and to learn from them,” Jefferson said. “They always put a special spin on any activity I assigned them, making it better than what I envisioned. The best is yet to come for these outstanding alumni!”
While in Washington, D.C., this summer for the Alumni Ambassador training and Fellow Orientation, Jefferson visited several congressional representatives from her home state of Mississippi and other states in the south to discuss her work as an educator in her home state and on her projects. “My visits to Capitol Hill were a great chance to talk about the value of exchange programs for U.S. teachers and how my projects are reflected in my current work,” Jefferson said, noting that her constituents were delighted to see samples of her students’ work from her project in Mexico.
Prior to becoming an English Language Programs Alumni Ambassador, Jefferson was a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Alumni Ambassador, a position in which she enjoyed sharing her experiences as a Fulbright teacher in Mexico with K-12 students in the U.S. and university students in Colombia, Panama, and the U.S. She saw the Alumni Ambassador opportunity with English Language Programs as yet another chance to share her diverse teaching experiences with others who may be interested in pursuing similar opportunities. “I’m excited about the year ahead as an Alumni Ambassador, and I hope to reach out to several K-12 candidates,” Jefferson said. “Because I know firsthand how these kinds of exchange opportunities can enhance your teaching.”
Stay tuned for our next featured Alumni Ambassador story with John Chi.