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A blog that looks behind the scenes at how we bring our mission to life, every day

Jess Hopper ‹ We are EF Blog | Careers

Every year, millions of Americans of Hispanic descent celebrate <a href="https://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Hispanic Heritage Month</a>, a time to honor their heritage’s traditions and culture and the contributions made to American society by the Hispanic community.
In celebration of this important month of recognition, we sat down with three EFers for a roundtable conversation about their personal reflections: Gustavo, an Assistant Manager with <a href="https://www.goaheadtours.com/?utm_medium=EFbrand&utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=hispanic_heritage_2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EF Go Ahead Tours</a> in Boston, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved to Florida at age seven; Crystal, a bilingual Traveler Support Specialist with <a href="https://www.eftours.com/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=EFBrand&utm_content=hispanic_heritage_2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EF Educational Tours</a> in Denver, was born and raised in the Chicago’s suburbs after her parents immigrated from Mexico; and Ismael, a Tour Consultant with EF Educational Tours in Denver, is a <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-of-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">former DACA holder</a>.
Read on for their perspectives on the experience of heritage and the meaning of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
<h2>What did your Hispanic heritage mean to you and your family growing up?</h2>
Crystal
Heritage has always been a very important part of my life, but I never had a name for it — it was just always intrinsic. My family is originally from Mexico. Although I was born and raised in the United States, I’m still very in touch with my Mexican roots.
Growing up, my mom didn’t speak English, so I learned Spanish as my first language. I didn’t learn English until my older brother started going to kindergarten and began speaking to me in English. As I grew up, I realized that knowing Spanish was part of my heritage, and it was something I became really proud of. I know a lot of people who are Latinx descendants and don’t speak Spanish anymore, so, unfortunately, it can feel like we’re losing part of that heritage.
National Hispanic Heritage Month is a special month because September 16th, which is Mexican Independence Day, is my mom’s birthday as well, so we have to do something big for that! It’s always celebrated in my family. Our tradition is to celebrate the changing of the season with the traditional sweet bread and things that we bring back from our home country.
In my personal life, heritage means that there’s always family around you. You’re barely home before somebody’s knocking on your door, and it’s your uncle whoever, or your tia whoever, and somebody’s coming over with food. As soon as the weather starts getting cold, it means the tamales are coming out, the sweet bread, the hot chocolate. It’s little things like that that I value and cherish.
Ismael
I’m very proud of my Mexican culture. Spanish is also my first language, and I’m very proud of that. But I was previously a DACA holder — people with DACA were brought to the United States as children, whether they were brought illegally or overstayed a visa. DACA allows them to get a social security number, work legally, and live without the fear of deportation. But even with DACA, I was always very hesitant to tell people about my specific situation. It was ingrained in me from a young age that I had to be careful what I said and who I hung out with because you never know.
<img alt="hispanic heritage ismael" class="wp-image-17503 size-full" height="379" sizes="(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px" src="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-ismael-resized.jpg" srcset="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-ismael-resized.jpg 568w, https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-ismael-resized-300x200.jpg 300w" width="568">
So heritage to me is family togetherness, because, like Crystal, I had a lot of family here. We could have cousins and uncles show up on any given day of the week, and I’d meet a new uncle or a new cousin. That was a regular thing, meeting new and interesting family members.
Gustavo
When we moved to the United States, we were the only ones who moved, so my experience was the complete opposite — not having cousins, not having my grandparents, not having my aunts and uncles. Having been a seven-year-old kid moving from one country to another, I’ve found that when I’m in the United States, I feel very Argentinian. When I go back to Argentina to visit all my cousins, it’s the opposite. I am both Argentinian and a United States citizen, so I can be both or neither. The waters get brackish with that blending of the cultures.
Living in the United States with constant reminders of my Hispanic heritage is something that I find very valuable. A couple of nights ago, we made homemade empanadas, which my mom taught me. I’ve also held cooking classes for my team, where I’ve taught them how to make traditional Argentinian food.
<h2>What impact has your Hispanic heritage had on your relationship with learning, your education, and your career?</h2>
Ismael
My background had a huge impact on what I decided to do. Growing up, my parents always instilled in us — my two older sisters and me — that we had to do better than them, we had to be better than them. It was expected of us, and as little kids, we struggled to understand why that was. But we saw growing up that people from our culture, from our background, for whatever reason, whether it’s systemic racism or other hurdles, it’s harder. Growing up in a lower socioeconomic area that really impacted me. I wanted to be successful financially. I wanted to make sure I would be able to help take care of my parents when they got older. They don’t have 401Ks or IRAs, so it was really important for me to succeed.
Crystal
Like Ismael, for me, success wasn’t optional, it was expected. You need to get good grades; you need to go to college; you need to get that diploma; you need to study. My mother would tell me, “I don’t want you to end up like me. I don’t want you to work at a factory.” She was always pushing us to go to school, take an interest in extracurriculars, be like the other kids so that we could have a better chance down the road.
One of the most important things was learning Spanish. She said, “You’re learning Spanish, and you’re learning it well.” She instilled in me a love of languages, which is why I’m a language nerd now. I studied Mandarin in high school because I was fascinated with challenging myself and understanding other people. And when I went off to college, I started learning Russian. My mother was always saying, “Do it! Learn another language! Go out there, see what you can do!”
<img alt="hispanic heritage crystal" class="wp-image-17501 size-full" height="379" sizes="(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px" src="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-crystal-resized.jpg" srcset="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-crystal-resized.jpg 568w, https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-crystal-resized-300x200.jpg 300w" width="568">
My goal was to leave my bubble. I was going to break that barrier to say that I made a difference for my family, and I helped my family get out of where they were. Thankfully we’re in a very different position now, and education has been a huge part of that. I’m grateful now, but growing up, it was difficult. I was always under pressure. When I was at college as a first-gen student, I didn’t have the support that most of my fellow students had. No one in my family went to college. No one knew how to help me struggle through it. I would have breakdowns, but I had to figure out how to pick myself up, dust myself off, and keep going.
I learned independence from a young age, but I also made it because I had support from my parents. Even if it wasn’t the support that I needed, it was the best support they could provide. That’s something I’m grateful for, but, like Ismael, growing up, I didn’t understand it. I was like, “Why? Just let me be a child.” But I’m grateful for it now.
<h2>Did growing up knowing that your family had a deep connection to another part of the world impact your understanding of traveling?</h2>
Crystal
I grew up in Chicago, a super diverse place, and never really thought about traveling. It wasn’t financially possible for us. We grew up in a low-income home. It wasn’t something that was ingrained from the beginning; all your focus is on getting good grades and trying to graduate.
When I started studying Mandarin in high school is when I first started thinking about the world. I was able to study abroad in Russia in college, and I came back with a completely different mindset. Working at EF has been amazing for that — I’ve been able to travel to other places, and my brother has been able to travel with me. This company has given me so many opportunities to see the world, and it allows me to talk to so many people who probably didn’t think traveling was a possibility, but then they find out that it is, it can be. It’s my responsibility now to help people see beyond the United States and take advantage of that passport.
Gustavo
Every generation of my family has decided to move to a new country for the past four generations. We are in the United States now, but before that. it was Argentina, and before that, on my dad’s side, it was Poland and Russia, and on my mom’s side, it was Romania and France. My family has had a history of needing to move. Anytime something bad happened in the place they were living, they said, “I can either stay here and have my family be in danger, or I can make something of nothing, so let’s go on an adventure.”
<img alt="hispanic heritage gustavo" class="wp-image-17502 size-full" height="379" sizes="(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px" src="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-gustavo-resized.jpg" srcset="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-gustavo-resized.jpg 568w, https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hispanic-heritage-gustavo-resized-300x200.jpg 300w" width="568">
It’s been really impactful for me to travel to all of my heritage sites. Seeing where your roots come from ties you to who you are, why you are here, and how you came to be here. Because when I trace back my family heritage and the struggles they had during their times, it makes our times look like a breeze.
Ismael
My family has never been into traveling. They didn’t really talk about traveling abroad, speaking different languages, experiencing different cultures. I couldn’t travel back to Mexico because I had DACA; I couldn’t leave the country.
Working for EF and seeing the value that travel has for students, which I wasn’t able to do, it broadens their horizons. I know we say that lot — broaden your horizons through experiential learning — but it really does happen. To give students the opportunity to travel the world, see different places, eat different kinds of food, and see that there’s more to the world than your little slice of Earth, it’s so impactful. It’s something that I was never able to do myself, and I could also say that for a lot of my family members.
<h2>How do you connect your Hispanic heritage to your community, whatever and wherever that community may be?</h2>
Gustavo
Moving from one country with customs and cultures to a new country with its own customs and cultures, what you keep and what you adapt is interesting. Take Thanksgiving, for example. We never ate turkey in Argentina. We didn’t know how to cook it, but our neighbors came to our door with a huge turkey our first year here, so you try it. Maybe you end up saying turkey’s not for us; we’d rather make Asado and chimichurri. Rather than trying to make traditional American foods, we would use Thanksgiving as a time to make our traditional empanadas but grab some deli turkey to throw in it. We’d find reasons to blend the cultures and keep doing what we loved to do in Argentina and find ways that adapted to the United States.
When I came to Boston, it was really easy to create a new community at EF, but the city itself lacks diversity. You can find diversity outside Boston, so I started to look up Facebook groups like Argentinos en Boston. We’d get together to watch Barcelona matches against Real Madrid, Messi, and the national team. I built a community with people with the same background as me. It’s out there; you just have to seek it for yourself. As an immigrant, you don’t expect things to fall in your lap. You can’t expect your community to just happen — you have to seek it yourself.
Crystal
I grew up in a very diverse community with people from all over the world. Chicago is ridiculously diverse; whether you’re in the city or the suburbs, you’re surrounded by people from many different backgrounds. For me, that provided a kind of respite. There were so many people from different cultures coming together. I wasn’t lost trying to fit into somebody else’s culture; it was more that each of us was celebrated for bringing something different to the table. I went to a predominantly white university, and there was very little celebration of culture and heritage. So, we became the people who promoted our culture, celebrated our heritage, and tried to expose people to different aspects of our lives that they might not be aware of.
As Gustavo said, you have to build up your community. You don’t just expect it to happen; we have to make it happen. You make a community wherever you are.

We brought together three EFers for a roundtable conversation. Read their perspectives on the meaning of National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Cultural connections roundtable: Reflecting on Hispanic heritage - We are EF

Cultural connections roundtable: Reflecting on Hispanic heritage ‹ We are EF

Cultural connections roundtable: Reflecting on Hispanic heritage

National hispanic heritage

When Wil left his home in Canada on a backpacking trip after finishing his undergraduate degree, it was with the goal of traveling the world and exploring different cultures. He didn’t plan on turning his gap year into a 20+ year career in education, more than a dozen of which would be spent working at EF Education First. He also never expected to find himself a student throughout much of that time. But this is exactly where Wil’s path has taken him.
From his early days as a young student in a French immersion program, through his first job as an ESL teacher in Thailand, to his current role as Vice President of Learning Design & Strategy with EdTech in EF’s Shanghai office, Wil’s career as both educator and student have spanned multiple countries and taken him through various roles under the umbrella of language and education.
We recently caught up with Wil to discuss his career, how his long history of being both student and educator has led to his success, and the things that have been important for him as he’s built his career.
How did you get started working in education?
I stumbled into education. I did not go to university imagining that I would be a career educator. I was taking a break between degrees and decided I wanted to do some traveling. And at one point, I decided I wanted to stay where I was in Thailand, so I started teaching English, as many people do, and I realized I liked it.
I had a great time teaching the Thai kids. And I was working in a supportive setting, so I had great colleagues. I was lucky to have a supportive headteacher and a great trainer herself. Working with really skilled colleagues led me to want to also seek more training.
As my career developed, while I’ve always been in education, I’ve gone through several phases that have changed my perspective and changed my day-to-day. But I’m glad that I spent a lot of time in the classroom when I first started because that’s the perspective that I’ve carried through all the other stages of my career.
<img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-17794 size-full" height="362" sizes="(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px" src="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Staff-Profile-Blog-Wil-2.jpg" srcset="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Staff-Profile-Blog-Wil-2.jpg 568w, https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Staff-Profile-Blog-Wil-2-300x191.jpg 300w" width="568">
You’re a career educator, but also a lifelong student. What impact has that had on the work that you do?
I didn’t start off by saying, “I think being a lifelong learner is important,” but for most of my career, I have also been a student. I completed a master’s degree while I was working. I did a teaching diploma while I was working. And now I’m doing a doctorate.
Growing up in Canada, I was in a French immersion program, so I grew up speaking two languages. Originally it was an interest in language and culture that drew me in. But as I learned more about teaching, I felt I had no idea what I was doing. And if I was going to keep doing it, I didn’t want to be pretending. I didn’t want to be faking it. I wanted to learn how to do it properly. As I started receiving training and learning about it, I realized I had a lot to learn, so I kept learning. I like being a student, and I do think it’s an important perspective to have. It gives you first-hand experiences to apply on the other side of things when dealing with students yourself.
But people often come into an organization like EF, and they feel like there’s a black box associated with learning, or often it’s called “academics.” So, they’ll think, “I don’t understand academics.” I would suggest that people try to blow that idea up and think about it in smaller pieces. Everyone who’s been a student understands what it’s like to learn something.
What has helped you be successful at EF?
When I started teaching, I did not imagine the career that I’ve had. The role that I have now didn’t exist when I first joined EF, so it’s been a result of seeing things that I could do, developing skills, and finding opportunities.
At EF, I’ve never been in a position where I felt like I couldn’t ask about something, or get involved in something, or where people would say, “look, mind your own business.” That never happens. It’s a people business, so when you take advantage of that and get to know more people, whether at work or socially, you learn more about what they’re doing, and you naturally learn about ways that you can collaborate.
When I think about the people who have been successful in this company, that’s one thing that they’ve had in common: their ability to work cross-functionally with a variety of people. When approaching a problem, they can think systematically and think about it from the customer’s perspective. They say, “What is the kind of experience or the kind of service I want to provide?” And then, “Well, I need this person’s help, and that person’s help, and to bring these things together.”
In a big company, there’s always the risk of getting stuck in silos and seeing things with blinders on. The reality for our customers is that they don’t see those functions. They think about the experience.
Beyond working and thinking collaboratively, what else has helped you?
Early on in my career with EF, I worked in an EF franchise school in China as a Director of Studies. I went well beyond the scope of what a Director of Studies would be, but it’s the people who enjoy being involved and can see something that needs to be done and go and do it who are successful.
As I got more comfortable in that role, I expanded to do other things because I could see an opportunity. I ended up involved in all facets of the business. I had no experience in marketing, but I did a lot of marketing projects. I had no experience in sales, but I developed an
understanding and awareness through working with salespeople. I even helped to refurbish and paint the school. I felt a lot of ownership for the school. When things needed to be done, I wanted them to be done as best they could be.
As a manager in a school, there are a lot of things to figure out. I had less time to explore the challenges I was facing, which was hard for me because I like to take my time to analyze and think. But I needed to learn how to be decisive because a lot of people were relying on those decisions. And let’s just say I made a few mistakes. But importantly, I learned from them, and the experience was formative in my career.
<img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-17795 size-full" height="362" sizes="(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px" src="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Staff-Profile-Blog-Wil-3A.jpg" srcset="https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Staff-Profile-Blog-Wil-3A.jpg 568w, https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Staff-Profile-Blog-Wil-3A-300x191.jpg 300w" width="568">
Has being comfortable making mistakes been an essential part of your career growth?
One of the things that’s given me confidence over the years is being comfortable enough when I have an idea to say, “I don’t know if it’s going to work,” and having a process for iterating and testing and developing. It’s important to have an idea and try something, instead of waiting until you have a perfect idea before doing it. That’s a shift in my mindset that’s taken place over the past ten years or so from not wanting to make mistakes to taking calculated risks and learning from those. The fresh faces –– who otherwise might challenge the way things are –– are sometimes quite young, so they’re not ready to push back and make mistakes. If you can create spaces in small groups or a one-to-one setting where they can share their opinion without fear of losing face, they might be more inclined to take risks and share ideas that are not quite fully-formed.  Who knows, a fresh idea might evolve into something great!
As you’ve moved beyond a teaching role, how have you stayed connected to what first got you hooked on working in education: the teacher/student relationship?
I’ve gravitated towards coaching and mentoring as a way to explore education, and it’s a nice avenue for developing meaningful relationships. It’s a very satisfying feeling for a teacher to see students doing well, and when you’re a coach or mentor, and you see your staff or your colleagues doing well, you get a similar type of positive feeling.

Learn how Wil's long history of being both student and educator has led to his success, and the important things for him as he’s built his career.

From lifelong student to educator: Wil’s EF journey - We are EF

From lifelong student to educator: Wil’s EF journey ‹ We are EF

From lifelong student to educator: Wil’s EF journey

From lifelong student to educator wils ef journey

Jess Hopper

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