February 28, 2017

Creating a Mentor/Mentee Relationship


Often times, scholarships or programs require references or recommendations. 
The Fulbright ETA that I'm applying for requires 3, meaning I have to really establish relationships with relatable professionals. 
I admit, I do have it a little easier attending a private university where professors actually know my name. 

Regardless, here are my tips at creating a mentor and mentee relationship:

1. Take initiative - schedule an appointment and communicate what you want to meet about.
Trying to create a mentoring relationship is quite a deeper talk than an exam question.  

2. Be able to present yourself and your goals and expectations clearly.
This will help you and will communicate to your possible mentor that you come prepared. This will also help be respectful of the mentor's time.

February 23, 2017

Make an Application Plan

Tip: Get organized!
An essential thing to make for yourself is an Application Plan (click to enlarge below!). Call it what you may, but any one place (be it handwritten or digital) that contains all the information regarding your application plans will be mighty handy.

February 21, 2017

My Teaching Experiences


Let's get personal!
Whichever path you endeavor, having some experience, whether volunteer or work, is a definite plus. For me, that would be for teaching.

On the left, you can find me, almost centered in the red shirt, blending in with my 1st/2nd grade communion students. I volunteered to co-teach Bible study at my local church for 3 years before I left for college. Although I want to teach older kids (high school), being the head of this classroom really energized me and reminded me every week of the passion I had for teaching/becoming a part of these young lives.

Though I haven't been teaching since college, I've been doing fieldwork (observing a 7th grade English Language Arts class) for almost a year now. And it excites me to say that I will be student-teaching in Spring 2018. I am definitely fast-tracking through this whole credential process, but I am learning so much on the way and very little has discouraged me from continuing in this career path. This is when I can proudly say that I've found my passion. Although I have so many skills to work on (one being public speaking), I know that through these experiences, I want to be a positive and inspiring image to young minds as a teacher. I imagine myself happy when I can see the development of my students.

And that's my quite short experience with teaching, and the story is still going on. Experiences like this will enhance my chances when I apply to scholarships such as Fulbright, but the most important thing is that it fulfills me as a growing individual.

February 15, 2017

Resources List

I'm sharing with you all a new page called Resources, where I'll be leaving all the links that I refer to in my blog posts compiled in a useful list. (Basically sharing the majority of my Bookmarks bar with you) Please refer to the page for further information!

*Edit 03/02/2017: I've annotated the Resources page to give more insight on what the links are and how they will be useful to you! I realized that this will be better for users visiting the Resources page alone :-)

Path three: Programs


There are some programs specifically dedicated to hiring individuals to teach English abroad; they just require some browsing and verification of authenticity. I recommend programs because they make the process simpler (less individualistic) and give you the option of traveling with others.
http://www.reachtoteachrecruiting.com/english-teaching-jobs-in-korea-with-epik.html
Below, I will be discussing two reputable programs that I've been recommended.

February 14, 2017

Path two: Scholarships/Grants


Scholarship and grant are two words that I love to hear. These are are monetary awards given to students base don academic or other achievement. Not very much to my surprise, there are scholarships and grants out there that fully fund being an English Teaching Assistant abroad. The one I've researched and will be applying for in Fall 2017 is the prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Award.


The Fulbright ETA offers locations around the world: East Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & North Africa, South & Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. Thus, the applicants come from all over the nation, and it is highly competitive.

For example, there are 80 grants offered each year to Korea. In 2016, there were 313 applicants; meaning only about 25% won a grant. These are pretty good chances, compared to countries that have less than 10 grants available.

Regardless, I've been highly encouraged to apply for this scholarship because of how well-known it is, being a semi-finalist or finalist is an accomplishment in itself, my Fellowship Advisor insists.

February 05, 2017

Path One: Certifications

In my research to realize my goal of teaching abroad, I encountered the terms TEFL, TESOL, and TESL multiple times. These are types of certification that prepare instructors for teaching in different environments. You can better secure a job teaching English abroad with a type of certification. But what are the differences?

Here is a short explanation of the different types of certifications:


February 04, 2017

Where to Travel

One of the first things to consider when teaching abroad is where. If you're like me, full of wanderlust, then this is quite a difficult task. Europe? Asia? South America?

Based on my personal contacts and online research, common places to teach English abroad include:

China                                                  Spain

Mexico City                                        Korea

February 02, 2017

Welcome to my blog!


I'm as excited for this blog as I was to ruin this family photo on our last vacation to Oregon in December!

This is where I will be blogging about my experience preparing to Teach English abroad after my undergraduate college career. Hopefully, I will continue to use this as a platform to blog about my teaching experience if I succeed!

You can read more about me personally under the About Me tab. Otherwise, please enjoy my carefully-written content, and I hope that this blog will one day be guidance for others.