2008 graduate Ashleigh Meyer teaches internationally in Brussels, Belgium

International travel is not what an everyday English teacher expects when pursuing their career, but for 2008 graduate Ashleigh Meyer, it comes in her job description. Meyer has been working at St. John’s International school in Belgium since , where she teaches English as a second language and language arts. She made the decision to pursue a job that that would fulfill all of her interests and those aspects of who she is and being a teacher for St. John’s seemed like the perfect fit.

“[The school] I work at has about 62 nationalities represented. Some of those students are native English speakers, some of them are very new to English,” Meyer said via video chat. “I teach language arts, which would be your normal kind of English class reading — writing and literature, a very straightforward English class. Then, I also teach English as an addition language, which is more like you would think of as English as foreign language.”

In her freshman year of high school, Meyer went on a international trip to Europe and Italy, where she started considering options for her future.

“I was in an integrated class — half social studies and half language arts,” Meyer said. “We took a trip in the summer and we went to Italy and Greece. It helped me understand that I might want to move away someday.”

Meyer decided to teach internationally after two years of studying anthropology and sociology at the University of Kansas.

“By the end of my second year, I had changed my major to education and linguistics,” Meyer said. “I have so many interests; in order to pursue my interests, teaching internationally was the way to fulfill those aspects of who I am.”

Teaching in Belgium was not Meyer’s first experience teaching abroad — she found a position in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, at an International Teaching Fair in Iowa. There, she taught ESL to children in kindergarten through seventh grade.  

“It was a pretty small school, we had less than 100 students,” Meyer said. “Because the school was very small, the school was very [communal]. Not only would you be teaching the kids, but you would be invited over for dinner and birthday parties. It had different boundaries that what teachers would be used to in the United States.”

Despite only teaching in Brazzaville for a year, the overall experience was very unique for Meyer.

“I lived in a apartment complex with all of the other teachers that worked at the school,” Meyer said. “Not only are you working with people, but you are also living with them, which creates an interesting dynamic. You become very good friends — or not — with your colleagues.”

Unhappy with her professional life, Meyer decided to move to Brussels, where she began searching for her current job.

“I basically found that job I have now online,” Meyer said. “I just started googling ‘international teaching jobs in Brussels’ because I knew I wanted to move there, and I basically applied for any position in that area.”

Meyer did not realize she wanted to be an international teacher in high school, but she said being on the JagWire newspaper staff taught her important life skills.

“Newspaper was what help[ed] me the most in realizing who I am now, and the different skills that I have now, I definitely can attribute that to being on the newspaper staff,” Meyer said. “You are pushed to do new different things and there are lots of skills involved, like communication skills with people, technology skills and photo editing skills.”

In high school, Meyer was apart of the soccer team, where she says soccer coach Arlan Vomhof helped her become a well-rounded person.

“I got to coach her for two years,” Vomhof said. “She was very positive and was a hard worker. She had a lot of energy and was very lively. She had a good time with whatever she was doing.”

Meyer’s character helped her to be able to be more decisive and a better teacher.

“I take risks,” Meyer said. “That has propelled me to make the decisions I have in my life, but, as a teacher, risk taking allows me to be creative, which helps my students.”

After moving around, Meyer enjoys her time as a teacher in Belgium.

“I feel that I’m valued as an employee,” Meyer said. “I’m being challenged a lot, and, as a teacher I get to be innovative and creative, which is an important aspect as a teacher for me.”