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Native knows the art of taking advantage of every opportunity
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| By: Sarah Lideen |
July 22, 2009 |
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Ginger Taft, daughter of Jerry and Kristy Taft, of Chetek, was inspired by a college friend who studied abroad to go beyond the comforts of home to teach others. Taft has taken numerous trips to the ocean to help turtle hatchlings back to the ocean.
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Every day people wake up with the opportunity to succeed and change the world around them. Ginger Taft, a 1996 graduate of Chetek High School, discovered in her years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth that she wanted to feel that sense of success and accomplishment through her teaching.
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After finding a program at her school that would allow her to student teach overseas, Taft worked in England and traveled throughout Europe.
She graduated college in 2000, then went on to teach art in the Minneapolis, Minn., area for two years. Itching to travel abroad again, Taft moved to Thailand, where she taught for another two years before returning to Minneapolis.
Missing the life overseas, Taft took a job opportunity at The International School of Port of Spain in Trinidad, one of the southernmost islands in the Caribbean, where she teaches art to high school students grades 9-12.
"While the school is made up of over 50 nationalities, almost half of the students I teach are from Trinidad," explains Taft. "The next largest population of students comes from South America, and the petroleum and gas industry in Trinidad brings students from the U.S., Asia and Europe."
Next year, she plans on introducing a ceramics program to the school.
The school is also active in helping local conservationists tag and weigh the world's largest sea turtle, the endangered leatherback sea turtle, on the insular Caribbean. Few hatchlings make it back to sea before vultures or stray dogs can reach them, so Taft and students have helped these hatchlings make it back to sea unharmed.
However, relocating overseas is not as simple as just going. First and foremost, she needed to become a certified teacher in order to get her visa to teach in Trinidad. When working in England and Thailand, the government required her to have proof that she was qualified and that they were not taking the job away from a national before letting her come. After that, a basic physical examination was required before she could apply for her visa.
Even after passing the qualifications needed to begin her dream, living overseas was not as easy as it had seemed.
Cultural differences had to be observed and respected, and learning how to interact within the culture was a must.
"It takes patience and requires modification of daily normal behaviors," says Taft. She also says that the hardest part is missing her family.
Her students have helped her adapt to the new culture, and although there are some material comforts from home that she finds herself missing, she enjoys the work she is doing.
"It is rewarding to see their pride in the artwork they produce and to witness their artistic growth," says Taft. She says that because her classroom sizes are much smaller than when she taught in Minnesota, she is able to work more individually with her students and build strong relationships with them.
Teaching provides stability for a child. It provides young people with excitement in their education and allows students to open their minds to new things. Working overseas is filled with new experiences and challenges, but it comes with many rewards. Putting these two things together can create an unimaginable difference in this world and can inspire anyone to embark on their own journey to seize the day and say yes to opportunity.
"The world is becoming smaller and people who are interested in working abroad should pursue it," says Taft. "There are so many opportunities that didn't exist thirty or even twenty years ago. It is an enriching experience getting to know about other cultures. It teaches us to respect differences and learn new perspectives on life."
Although she plans on staying abroad for another two or three years, she is excited to be visiting home in Chetek until Saturday.
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©The Chetek Alert 2010
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