​This was my guiding question that I used to focus my research for my time in Peru. Observation and interviews gave me the answers I was seeking, but I returned to the U.S. with so much more than this. I added on to my question according to the curiosity of my students and even my IB coordinator. Peru provided inspiration that I didn’t know I needed. 

​“According to Students”
Students accredited their ability to stay motivated to their desire to secure a better future for themselves. They felt that being fluent in English and earning the IB diploma would qualify them for higher paying jobs and enable them to potentially go to college in the United States. Despite their goals, many of the students seemed to lack insight on how to get scholarships or which schools were best for their career ambitions. This lack of awareness made me appreciate school counselors and other educators in the USA that constantly guide students in their next steps. I now want to gather intel on resources and programs designed for students like the ones I met in Peru and feed that information to the schools. I could even get my students involved in that exchange. Other students aimed to please their families with their success, which is still a healthy form of motivation.
“According to Teachers”
Unlike the US, Peru has national standards for learning that do not vary across the different regions. There are standardized tests that match these guidelines and teachers also create their own standard based assessments to track student learning. Similar to how it is done in my state, teachers are expected to keep records of students’ grades and then upload them to a platform that is mandated by their ministry of education. This is the first year that COAR Huancavelica has used this platform. Students receive frequent feedback in class, but their parents are shown their grades at the end of each bimester. A unique aspect of their grading process was that all parents are required to conference with teachers concerning their student’s grades and tutors are assigned to struggling students. While this is not a foreign concept to the US, I feel that we would only benefit from mandating such a thing consistently. Some things just should not become more lax over time for the sake of convenience. Teachers in Peru use minute by minute informal assessments just as we do to check for understanding in the classroom. There are no high school exit exams or SAT equivalent tests. However, they do use the Cambridge English Proficiency Exam to assess their foreign language learning.
“Unique Qualities of COAR Huancavelica”
The IB programme promotes international mindedness in all IB students and teachers. The school I was assigned to use their lessons to show their students the world. It is not feasible for them to help their students travel abroad, so they must bring the world into their classrooms. They use English class to study other cultures the most, but it is enforced that teachers apply global learning to every content area.  The academic program at this school is based on 7 principles:

1. Work from local to global.
2. The student is the center of the learning process.
3. Classes are based on developing higher-order thinking skills.
4. Evaluation is the principle strategy for learning.
5. Research is the base of the teaching & learning process.
6. The use of technology is required in class.
7. There must be interdisciplinary comprehension of complex systems.

I intend to reevaluate my own practice to see how many of these principles I uphold.
“The Concrete Rose”
I have to say that my main lasting impression came from simply glancing up at a poster on the wall of one of the classrooms which had the three moral codes of Quechua culture in three different languages. These codes are: Do Not Lie, Do Not Steal, & Do Not Be Lazy. I plan to make these codes the law of my classroom.

• Do Not Lie- Be transparent about the help you need. Take responsibility for your actions.
• Do Not Steal- No plagiarism or copying work. Learn for yourself.
• Do Not Be Lazy- Work hard and exceed expectations. Do not give up due to difficulty or even past failures.

Besides these principles, a life changing moment occurred in class when a student told me that I had made his dream of meeting someone from abroad come true. I was honored and humbled all at once and we were both overcome with emotion. I told him that meant that it was time for him to get a new dream, but what I didn’t say was that they helped me discover a dream of mine that I didn’t know I had. I seek to travel the world now not only for recreation but to teach and learn. My life and career will never be the same. What a beautiful and unexpected rose. 

​Many of the students in Peru are facing multi-leveled adversity. If they are not poverty stricken, they may be living in remote areas of the Andes that require long treks just to attend class every day. If they are not struggling in their regular studies, they are crossing one if not two language barriers. Most of these challenges are not unfamiliar to the American student, but I noticed a clear difference in how the Peruvian scholars face these issues. The students I encountered see these problems as a source of motivation, not excuses. 

“Work Ethic”
The students at Colegio de Alto Rendimiento de Huancavelica (COAR Huancavelica) have been selected from public schools all over the country as the top performing students. They were tested academically, psychologically and socially then interviewed before being accepted into a COAR school. These schools are boarding schools that house 3rd-5th grade secondary students, which is equivalent to American 10th through 12th graders.  Many COAR schools offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme for 4th and 5th grade students and are therefore using the IB curriculum and assessments that students learn through all over the world in addition to satisfying their nation’s educational requirements. More information about this public-school advanced learning initiative can be found HERE. The students of COAR Huancavelica take around 10 hours of English language learning per week and work between the hours of 7:30 am and 8:30 pm with breaks for meals and recreation. Although the students sleep in residence halls on campus, some are able to visit home on weekends or for the breaks, yet for many of them, a trip home is too expensive or unrealistic. One student would have to take a 6 hour car ride and then walk for 12 days to reach his home. He won’t be leaving until after he graduates. The students I interacted with admitted that this approach to learning was rigorous and at times intimidating. However, they were not only willing to face this challenge, they were grateful for it. By the end of their 5th grade (senior) year, they are fluent in English and equipped to compete academically at a global level.
“Attitude”
Don’t get me wrong, Peruvian students are not flawless machines. They, too, are human teenagers with social, recreational, and pop culture interests, mainly soccer and singers for the ones I talked with. Nevertheless, they surprised and impressed me in many ways:

1. Respect for ancient wisdom paired with a thirst for modern knowledge. It is rare to me that young people would hold the customs of old to such a high standard without allowing this to make them complacent. Many students spoke their native language, Quechua, to me and told me the legends of their mountains with pride. They honored their parents for upholding their customs while also studying tirelessly over articles about distant lands and learning new technologies. Many of their parents could not speak Spanish, let alone English but not one suggested that this was a disadvantage.
2. Respect for educators. They stood up when we entered the room and were patient and attentive as we instructed them. They were careful to seek permission for whatever they were doing. The most surprising part was the pride they took in pleasing us with their progress. I was treated like a celebrity daily! I think that being from the U.S. helped with that, but I did see honor being given to the teachers they see on a daily basis.
3. Blind faith in their futures. I asked students what kept them motivated to meet the school’s expectations, and their futures and well-being of their families served as the main sources of motivation. They saw learning through an advanced curriculum and becoming fluent in English as keys to career and traveling opportunities, yet most of them had no idea how they would attain these things. Some spoke about wanting to be able to solve Peru’s problems and contribute to their local communities, yet they could not identify anyone who was doing these things besides their teachers. Most students in the U.S. want to use education as a mean to a brighter future just like them, but Peruvian students are not being consistently presented with information about next step programs and scholarships. They have faith to work for things they can’t see clearly yet.

“Conclusion”
Peruvian students are either conditioned well to respect education or it is indeed a part of their common cultural identity. No matter which is more true, I was truly inspired by their determination. 

​This was the hardest question for me to answer. Do I answer for the country, for my state, my hometown, my racial subgroup, or…just…my family and I? All have distinctive differences; none of these approaches can cover it all. What would you have said? No matter how I chose to answer, I felt an overwhelming pressure to “get it right”. I wanted to make sure I didn’t play into negative stereotypes or present myself as biased. I didn’t want to come across as negative, but what if the truth isn’t as cheery as we’d like? I realized that I may be the only African American female that many may ever meet in person and this gave me an even greater sense of duty. I had this on my heart in addition to being wary of offending anyone I met. It’s so difficult to be yourself and be open when you’re this burdened. Nevertheless, I managed to tell my truth, various truths, and I learned much about myself in the process. 

​“Lesson 1”
Your truth is still the truth. Whether it’s the desired narrative or not. I learned to embrace this maybe by the third time I was asked about my culture. My disclaimer was that the USA is a tossed salad of diversity where people have all kinds of beliefs, values, and traditions. I told them about the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas being major American holidays, but that they are celebrated uniquely or not at all by many Americans. I told them about our flag and mascot but explained that each state had their own symbols to represent them. I bragged on how North Carolina is famous for pork BBQ, but I also warned them that they’d get something totally different if they ordered the same thing in the Midwest. I described being raised in a family that practices a culture of respect for elders and authorities. I shocked them with my status as an only child and intrigued them with other personal details including but also beyond my appearance. What they wanted to know about the most was how my experience and views may be different as a black woman. What do you like to be called? Is the “N-word” offensive? Do you ever experience racism? What do you think about Trump? How did you get your hair like that? Their curiosity caught me a little off guard, but I felt honored that they cared to get my American narrative as an individual since my own country at times doesn’t value minority voices. My willingness to open up, in spite of the risk of misunderstanding, gave me the opportunity to teach Peruvian teachers and students about American race relations, the civil rights movement, body art, box braids and more! I gave Greensboro, NC a bigger spot on the map by introducing them to the Greensboro Four. I gave them several stories that they may not get anywhere else, so I hope that it gave them a broader view on the American experience.
“Lesson 2”
Pain and perseverance are universal. Traveling means you get to meet people with no prior knowledge of the struggles you have faced. A fresh unbiased ear and a compassionate listener can validate your experience like no other. The beauty of humanity is that we can find common ground with strangers because of the familiar emotions we connect to when we share our stories. Although the plight of an African American family was an age old story they’d never heard, many students and teachers immediately found parallels in the treatment that the natives of their land faced at the hands of the Spanish conquerors and colonizers.
Common themes in the human experience across cultural lines are an excellent tool for helping students find ways to relate to other students in distant lands. It is important that we don’t attempt to compare or rank our respective suffering but instead just choose to respect each other’s strength and resilience. Representation matters in the curriculum, but as the instructor, we should guide students into a perspective shift that enables them to find the humanity in others that don’t look like them.

“Conclusions on the Teacher” 
​​My students, all students, have something to learn specifically from me. My experiences in Peru helped me to take more pride and interest in the uniqueness of my American experience. Whether the student was born here in the states or elsewhere, my life experiences and paradigms are valuable parts in the quilt of “our culture”. Why not tell parts of my story in my English class? Why not diversify the narratives of my supplemental selections to represent the rainbow that is humanity? Let’s study the biodiversity of a foreign neighborhood, while also teaching students to be problem solvers on their own block. The truth can vary, but it’s all worth knowing.