Share Your Story: Meghan Blumer Hamorsky ’14

SHARE YOUR STORY

Globally speaking

By MEGHAN BLUMER HAMORSKY ’14

Teaching Abroad: Why anyone can—and should—do it

It’s hard to grow within your comfort zone.

What more enriching way can you leave your comfort zone than with a new stamp in your passport as you surround yourself with exotic foods, a different language, and your own brand new students of a different culture? Teaching abroad allows you to immerse yourself in a place so foreign that each day becomes a new adventure. Though you’ll be responsible for educating your students about language and the world, I can guarantee you’ll be learning just as much as they will.

My own teaching portfolio has been a diverse one. From volunteering at a high school in Valparaíso, Chile, to interning as a migrant educator in rural Pennsylvania, to being a Spanish TA at the University of Maryland—I suppose it was no surprise when I hopped on a plane to teach abroad for a whole year.

But you don’t need a background like mine—foreign language and education— to do what I’ve done. Just ask my husband, Tony Hamorsky ’14, who graduated from Mother Fair with a B.S. in accounting and worked for two years as a production supervisor for a home building company. With no teaching experience whatsoever, he suggested we both apply for a teaching job in Asia, and before we knew it, we were landing in Seoul, South Korea.

And he’s not alone: • Abby Miles ‘16 (music/ communications) taught in Brazil for a summer and is now with Teach for

America. • Chelsea Phillips ‘15 (communications) is currently teaching English in

Shenyang, China. • Kasey Shaffer ‘13 (communications) spent more than three years in the

Czech Republic and met her fiance during that time. She began her time in

Prague as a teacher and then switched careers. • Lisa Giardina ‘11 (Spanish/human resources) taught in Spain for two years. • Rachael Wetzel Zahn ‘14 (Spanish/ education) volunteers in the

Dominican Republic every spring, and has worked as a language teacher in

Peru and Chile. • Teresa Whetstone ‘14 (Spanish/ political science) taught in China for more than two years through the

Peace Corps.

My point is this: You don’t have to be an educator here to get your foot in the door there. Rather, the versatile, quality education that Westminster equipped us with has prepared us for journeys outside the traditional trajectories of our majors and minors—isn’t that the point of a liberal arts education? All in all, whether or not the experience changes your career path, I can say with certainty that it will change your life.

During my 12-month contract at a private English academy about an hour outside of Seoul, I taught seven different classes—from 9:30 in the morning until 6 in the evening—and we covered topics like phonics, reading, and vocabulary, but also science, math, logic, and music, among others. My mornings began with six adorable kindergartners, and in the afternoons I taught elementaryaged kids, up to age 12. Also, once a week, I taught a middle school class of teenagers for a salary boost. About halfway through my contract, I was promoted to head teacher, so I interviewed teaching candidates,

Megan Blumer Hamorsky ’14, right, with a colleague beneath a cherry blossom tree. Top right photo: Hamorsky with her kindergarten students. Opposite page, top: Hamorsky enjoying the countryside and natural beauty of the Korean tea fields. Opposite page, bottom: Hamorsky and her husband, Tony Hamorsky ’14, with a Buddhist monk in the mountains. trained new hires, and led meetings, workshops and other events. This opportunity helped me gain valuable leadership experience, as I served at the liaison between the Korean administration and the “foreign” staff.

Not only can teaching abroad reward you with professional experience and personal achievement, but you’ll also learn that the way we do things here in our “Westminster Bubble” or in the United States as a whole isn’t the only way. Crossing into new territory will broaden your world views, make you a well-rounded global citizen, and will even make you stand out on a list of applicants when you’re ready for a new job stateside. You’ll gain interpersonal skills, intercultural skills, and language skills. You’ll have the ability to travel to beautiful places and have amazing stories and photos to share. In some places, you’ll earn a good living and save money or pay off some student loans. No matter what, you’ll have a wholeheartedly enriching experience.

Now, you’ll notice I’ve never once used the word “easy.” This experience is enriching, valuable, fun, humbling, and a whole slew of other positive adjectives, but it is also challenging— emotionally, physically, and mentally. It’s incredibly frustrating to get the paperwork together to get your visa or alien identification documents. You’ll be exposed to foreign germs that will multiply within the walls of your institution, where children loathe to wash their hands. You’ll be jet-lagged and stressed. The language barrier can be a mental drain, and certain customs or habits of the culture that surrounds you will make you crazy. You’ll miss the comforts of home: family, friends, familiarity, a decent hamburger. And, more likely than not, you’ll experience the reverse of these phenomena upon your return to the States. But ask anyone who’s done it if they regret their decision to go.

The answer: No way, it’s so worth it.

During my 13 months in Asia, I got to climb a mountain to a monk’s home where he fed me herbs straight from his garden and I got accidentally buzzed on his “medicine tea” (which,

I’m pretty sure, was basically just grain alcohol). I taught children how to read in their second language. I played with domesticated raccoons in a café in Seoul. I ate tangerines off the tree on Jeju Island, the Hawaii of South Korea. I learned to speak (basic) Korean through a language exchange with a local woman I befriended. I learned the proper customs as I partook in a traditional tea ceremony. I smelled the fresh scent of the blooming cherry blossoms that stretched as far as the eye could see. I attended a wedding ceremony of a Korean colleague and her husband. I visited the most breathtaking temples, mountains, beaches, tea fields, and cliffs. I also got to travel to Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and China.

It was so worth it.

So, take the leap. The time is now. Before you start your stateside career, or have car payments to make, or a house to maintain, or children of your own—or maybe even if you’ve got all that. . .Are you ready for a change? Do you crave an adventure? As you teach abroad, you’ll change the lives of your students, and you’ll change your own as well.

Meghan Blumer Hamorsky graduated from Westminster in 2014 with a B.A. in Spanish and two minors, in secondary education and sociology. Now that she’s stateside again, she will begin teaching Spanish at the University of Southern Mississippi in the fall.