Ep 202 | From Walnut Hill to Senegal: One IB student’s story

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The traveling's really from my grandparents, my mom's parents. My grandmother, like I said, traveled all over. But going to the IB program, I think made me really realize that there's so much more out there for me to experience and understand. And even if I didn't agree with it, just to know about it and to understand people who do think differently or believe differently or live differently, just because that's what they were born into. And then they they chose those pathways also. It's a good mix of coming from a family who believes in education because it's always opening doors.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every child in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support your child's success. Songs about small town girls are a dime a dozen. But my next guest had a path that you probably won't find in any lyrics. From the country to the inner city, from Florida to Senegal, and back again, today she's going to share how the Pensacola High School IB program and a yellow school bus gave her the wings she needed to create her own path while also honoring her family's legacy. First grade teacher at Kingsfield Elementary, the globe-trotting hometown girl Laura Wiggins. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I know your story starts with legacy, but you were not at all excited about carrying it all onward. And even told your mom, quote, I will never be a teacher. Yes, I did. Tell me how that went.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Well, the time I told her I would never be a teacher, I was in high school. She was teaching high school, but at a different high school. She taught at Northview in the north end of the county. And um she brought home papers to grade every night, had multiple preps, multiple students with multiple needs. And I just would look at her and like, no, there's no way I'm ever doing that.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

She wasn't the only teacher in your family.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

No, she was not. I have a sister, actually, two sisters now who are teachers, both elementary, like I am. My mom's parents were both teachers, and her siblings were professors. So yeah. And we love education.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

And you know, one child at least has to rebel.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yes. And that would have been me. Yes, definitely me. The fact that I'm a teacher today is very was very surprising to my whole family. To myself, it it wasn't in the cards until I was back in the classroom. So I yeah, went to Pennsylvania high school. I graduated, went to college, got a degree in anthropology and sociology, took no education classes. I had a double minor as well in chemistry and archaeology.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

So you were making sure all the stuff was filled with anything other than something that could be applied to teaching.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yes, completely. Or so I thought at the time, right? Doing my own thing. I loved it. I loved the subjects that I studied. But then, you know, getting ready to graduate from Rhodes College, I didn't know I'm what I wanted to do particularly after that. I thought, okay, maybe PhD later on, but I'm not ready. I need a break from school, IB program in college, it's a lot. I uh had studied abroad my junior year in uh Senegal, which is on the west coast of Africa. It has the point that's the westernmost point closest to the United States of America. And I had absolutely loved it there. I applied for a Fulbright scholarship to go back to Senegal and teach for a year. I was a semifinalist, but I did not get it. But that's okay because I said, you know what, I can get there myself. I had a friend who was working there, got a job there as a teacher. I said, you know what, I'll go teach, I'll live abroad, you know, kind of was feeling like my grandmother at that point, who was a teacher in Escambia County, but traveled all she could, like to all seven continents, every country except for two in the world. And so I did that, loved it there, was there for three years teaching. Before that, I had been there, you know, for six months of studying abroad. I'd gone back to do my senior thesis there in college. I'd gotten a grant for that for a month to look at farm to table and then the the culture of a kitchen and the markets. That was awesome. That sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah. I have so many things. I have so many questions. I have so many questions. Because this is like to give people context, like you're from the Walnut Hill area.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

I am, yes. So I grew up in kind of the triangle of Atmore, Bratt and Walnut Hill. And if you're from that area, you understand the triangle. Atmore is an Alabama, but it's, you know, the city, the big town around a bunch of farming communities. My dad's from Bratt, my mom's from Walnut Hill, but we lived in Atmore when we were younger, and for a lot of the time. And I went to Atmore schools my first two years at Rachel Patterson. But then my mom started teaching.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

And she What I think is so interesting is people who are usually from these types of areas don't usually, I don't know, maybe this is pre-internet, but like they don't usually know, you know what, there's a big world out there. Oh, yeah. And I have options and I'm going to explore those options. That's not my experience of being from small town America. So, how did you know that you wanted or needed to be in the Pensacola High School IV program?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah, I didn't know it, but my mom knew it. My parents are big on education. My dad comes from a farming family, my mom from an education family. And I was at Bratt and Ernest Ward, and my mom found out about the opportunity to the International Baccalaureate School at Pensacola High School, which is an awesome program that has so many things, teaches you academically rigorously, but also really pushes for students to be a part of their community and to give back to their community. And so I applied, I got in, and my parents and I decided, yep, let's do it. So every day for four years almost, and there's a second part to this, the second two years. But as a freshman and sophomore, I would get up, let's see, freshman year was 5 a.m. to get on the bus by 5:30. Mind you, school start was like 7:30. And then second year, the bus changed route. So I had to get up at like four to get on the bus by 445. It was a bus that because of special funds that the school district decided to put towards students' school choice and being able to transport them to those areas. So, you know, I was living in Walnut Hill, but I wanted to go to this special program, and the district made it a priority to make sure that there was funding available for students like me who would like to take advantage of that. And so got on the bus, and there would be like kids we would pick up in Walnut Hill that we go over to Century pick up and then go to MacArthur and drop off and pick up. And sometimes there would be another school on the way, and then we'd end up at Penn School High School, and I get dropped off, and there were still kids on there who were going to West Florida or going to a different school that they needed to go to. And so yeah, I met a lot of kids on the bus from a different lot of different backgrounds.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So did the IB program plant the seed in your mind that you wanted to travel, or was that already there and it just gave you access?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

The traveling's really from my grandparents, my mom's parents. My grandmother, like I said, traveled all over. But going to the IB program, I think made me really realize that there's so much more out there for me to experience and understand. And even if I didn't agree with it, just to know about it and to understand people who do think differently or believe differently or live differently, just because that's you know what they were born into, and then they they chose those pathways also. So it's a good mix of coming from a family who believes in education because it's always opening doors, but also a family who didn't push to say, well, education means you should go and do these things and you know not be a part of your community. I think that was really important for my mom and my dad to send me to a program that also realized, you know, that I should understand my community and be a part of it. Like I said, with the IB program. And so they have like service hours. They did you like 250 service hours, and a hundred of those have to be one project. And so it's really important that you're continually putting back into those around you.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

And your grandfather was someone also that believed that just because you're from a small town doesn't mean that you should have not have opportunities, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

So my grandfather was George Stone, which still feels odd to say sometimes because I I never met him, unfortunately. The George Stone Technical School in the county is named after him. I never met him because he passed away when my mom was eight, actually a couple of days before her ninth birthday. And so she also obviously remembers him and loves him, but didn't have a lot to pass on to us either, because she only knew him until she was eight years old. But my mom's older siblings, my grandmother shared through through the years their stories about him in the news as well, because he not only was a teacher for about 19 years, no, 20 years before he passed, but he also was the Escambia County House of Representatives representative for us in Escambie County for 10 years. He had actually been elected to be speaker-elect right before he passed. But in his 10 years in the legislature, he was very big on trying to get bills passed to allocate money and funds to legislation for education, particularly for vocational schools. And he was successful in 1965. He authored, sponsored, and got passed a bill that ended up allocating millions of dollars across the state of Florida to build vocational schools. Thus, George Stone was built, I think about two or three years after that. He was really big about compromising with colleagues, figuring out a solution with colleagues so that people could have access to things. You know, there are many ways to lead a beautiful life, and that can take a form in different ways. It takes different types of education. And there should be those that type of education should be available.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah. Yeah, it really should. That was very well said. I think he would be so proud of you. Thank you. I love how your journey just weaves in and out of that traditional framework because, like you said, your mom's side was all education. They were all in in education. Your dad's side was farmers. So there's like, it doesn't get more traditional America than that. And you were like, I think I'm gonna do this other thing. Yeah. But I love that. I think it's it speaks to the freedom and options that you had. So when you were coming from rural North Florida to Pensacola High School, which was in the middle of a city, tell me some of the things that you observed that were different for you.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Wow, so many differences. It was me experiencing things on a daily basis, and then also that going back home and having to explain things to my siblings or to my parents who also like hadn't necessarily had that experience. And like what? Just for example, I mean, you go from a small community where it is a majority white community, and you go to a community that's not. I I become a minority, which was I I think a wonderful experience because I would not have naturally had that experience if I had stayed where I was. And I think it's a very big growing experience. And you learn about other people's cultures, you learn about their daily life, and you learn how to exist in that, how to coexist in that. Just one of those things. So which sometimes was easy because you know, kids are kids. And then other times I learned, you know, I would be, you know, I'm an observant person. I I love to observe, hence anthropology, sociology, you know. So I learned through observation, you know, to kind of my friends around me. But there are also times where you just have to learn by experience. Sometimes that experience can be a little embarrassing. But, you know, if you if you say something or or you know, okay, so for example, growing up, I I didn't know what a hijab was. Okay. I did I just didn't know. And walking down the school hallways, PHS, I I had friends who wore hijabs and I was painfully naive about them in my mindset, right? In my mind frame, I'm like, wow, I'm very embarrassed right now. I don't know why they're wearing that. I don't know what it is. It's awfully nice, but I have no clue what's going on here. And so thankfully I had many kind friends who I would, you know, say, Hey, can you explain this to me? Or what's this about? And some of them would be a little shocked, I didn't know. But then other friends were like, Oh, yeah, okay, like this is this, and it's part of their culture and their religion.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

And that's that's so interesting. And religion was another parameter for what you had planned for what was next. I found that so interesting. Can you talk about what those parameters were? You were, you know, about to graduate from high school. I think you were just looking ahead towards the being a student overseas or working overseas.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah. Well, so graduating from high school, I decided to go to Rhodes College in Memphis because it was a smaller liberal arts school. And I just knew I'd have a lot of opportunity there. They're very service-oriented college as well. So it was very, very much emulated my experience in IEB. Like the it was giving out that same mission and goal as IEB IB was, and I really enjoyed that and thrived in it. So when I went to Rhodes, then my junior year I decided to go abroad. And at the time I had like, I did, I had very specific criteria, parameters, because I had a lot of friends study abroad in Europe and they were like, oh yeah, it was such a great time. I just like did whatever. And I was like, I don't want to, you know, I was I was paying to go abroad. I did have scholarships, but part of it was not. Thankfully, my parents were really good about teaching about money when I was a kid. And so I was thinking, okay, you know, if I'm gonna take out a loan to do this, I better pick a good place that's will help me. And so I got on the computer and I typed in these the following things. I said, I need a place where I can learn French, like continue learning French because I was learning French, but I also could possibly want to learn another language, so if it could offer another language. And in high school in IB, I had the opportunity. Our French teacher took us abroad during the summer. The French class in IB, it was a three-week stay in Dijon, France, and um with a family. And we got to go to little school and just like homestay and immerse, right, for the French. And I just that was such a special experience, like experience for me. So I knew I needed to stay with the family too. So, like that goes in there. I wanted to live somewhere that had a different major religion than Christianity because I understood from high school, like from the IB program, just you know, how important it is to put yourself in to someone else's shoes, really, for you know, lack of a better phrase.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

It's so interesting because so many people would be fearful, like they would really feel like even feel unsafe. Like it's unsafe to be around people whose religion is different. Do you know what I mean? And so that's why I find that is such an interesting little point in your story because it was your journey through the IB program that caused you probably enhanced something that was already.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

It taught me not to be afraid.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

It really did.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

It taught me not to be afraid of quote unquote the other. But rather that there are people too, and we have way more similarities than we do differences. And a lot of times our differences can cause us to have fear because we don't understand them. Back to the story with a hijab, you know, at that time I was curious, but then I also was like, is that allowed? You know, because like we're not supposed to be wearing caps on our head. So, like, wait, is she gonna get in trouble? You know, I kind of had that thought in the back of my head too. Again, because it was the other I didn't understand. But I really spent a lot of years like just constantly being presented with things that I had not experienced before, and having to like figure out, okay, like, am I gonna understand this or am I just gonna ignore it or I'm gonna be afraid of it? And thankfully, like my family, we just has always just had this why be afraid of it when it could be a good thing? What if it turns out to be a wonderful thing when I understand it? So I can't let that fear take over. And also, I was definitely, you know, that rebellious person in my family of, well, if you think something's wrong or bad, or I'm gonna like prove to you it's not.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

You know, I've definitely had that mentality too. I think I've also just had this. If I'm going to have such a staunch view on something, I need to have reasons why. I need to have experience to show me why. Because I just feel like it's shortchanging humanity so much. I don't want to assign someone something or assume something without having that experience myself and really get trying to understand it first.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So you taught in Senegal for what three years? Yes. And the teaching part, was that just because it was easy access or was there a little bit of surrender to that family heritage?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

At the time it was definitely easy access.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah. Like I have no calms saying I wanted to go back to Senegal because I absolutely loved living there. What did you love about it? Well, it's actually very similar to the South, okay, the American Southeast, in like it's super hospitable. One of their main tenets in their culture is to be, is to be hospitable to foreigners. So because there the idea is if you, if I as a if I were a mother, if I as a mother sent my child went away from my home and came upon bad luck and needed a place to be, needed people to support them, I would pray that those people would support them in my absence. So I have to do the same to others. If someone shows up to my doorstep, I need to extend hospitality to them and protection to them. And to me, I see that a lot in the South too. I think hospitality is very big on that, and people take care of people in their community. So that was really, it was really nice that connection. A lot of the cooking methods and cooking is very similar too. So that was very comforting to me. It's just the laid-backness for lack of a better term of the society was what I needed at that time in my life. American cultures can get very stressful, very easy. We we like to stress, we like to work, work, work, which is not bad, but we forget to have joy too. We can forget that very easily. Or we can be overwhelmed by things and not be able to have time for that. But for them, it's more of a flip. They work to live. Their priority is living and being amongst family and friends and enjoying the small parts of life and and slowing it down. So there's many places around the world that have, you know, like what they call Senegalese time, you know. We were we went to the Dominican Republic, my husband and I once, and they were like, Yeah, you're on the DR time. I'm like, okay, I understand this concept. Yes. So it's not unique to Senegal, but at that time in my life, I had never experienced that before. And so that was just something that at that time I needed because I wasn't sure of my next step. I wanted to still challenge myself. And so I was like, you know what? I'm gonna try living abroad because that's something I can do right now. My parents are very big about, you know, go to school before you settle down, go do things, you know, go get those experiences. Not because you can't after you, if you get married and have a family, but it it just gets more difficult to figure that out afterwards. And yeah, so I decided to do that and never looked back. It was wonderful. But while I was there, I was teaching and I was teaching kindergarten and it was bilingual kindergarten. So I had a counterpart. Her name is Adeline. We had two classes between the two of us, 28 kids in each class, but we did have a full-time assistant for each class, so that was awesome. And we basically, I would spend two and a half days of the week in one class, and then midweek we would switch. I'd spend two and a half days in the other class. So we would switch. So the bilingual, is that the why the switch? By well, physically, me and the French teacher would would switch, yes, because the idea of it was it's language through emergent. So when they're still that young, you can learn you it so easily a second language. And actually, for most kids, it was a third or fourth language at that time.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

And you learned a third language. I did Wolof. Wolof, yes. Yeah, yes. That's so cool. Yeah. Have since coming back to the States, have you been able to surprise anyone with your use of French or Wolof?

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yes. Actually, last night I did. Yes. My husband and I went to trivia. One of the questions was there is a and it's so funny because I don't have a TikTok and I will never get one. I just can't do it. There's too many things. But there's a TikTok influencer who is Synegalese Italian, and it's his name is Habi Havi Lame or Lum. And um Oh, I know him. Yeah, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

I didn't know he was Synegalese. He's Senegalese Italian. He's the one that does the like people make things super complicated, and then he gives this facial expression straight to the camera and does it simply, and it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

And I love him so much. And I was like, oh wow, I know a TikTok answer. But I wrote down instead of his name, I wrote down his nickname like a nickname that you would call him Habibie, which which is also like Arabic too. So like a lot of that has intermingled. Like Wolof is its own traditional indigenous language, but like all languages has taken some words from things. And so I know that word from the show Mo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah. The mom calls her son Habibie.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah. And so I went up to the Trivi Master and I was like, hey, I'm so sorry. I put his nickname down. His name is this. And he was like, Oh yeah, it's cool. It was cool. I was like, Yeah, I'm so sorry. Like, I lived in Senegal, speak Wolof. And he was like, wow, that's so cool. So we like chatted a little bit about that. I mean, it's and it's great to share that. So that's just kind of like a daily example. But my master's program that I did in Boston after I returned from Senegal, Wolof was a part of my official study. So I was a foreign language and area studies fellow, uh, which is a fellowship that is that the government has to invest in its own citizens to learn foreign languages so that we as Americans, you know, can continue to have diplomacy and where we can meet people where they are and have experts in those areas. So I did three years of intense wool off study alongside my master's in international affairs and security, which again, not an education degree. So yes, I'm still laughing at myself. But at the same time, the fact that I have all these degrees that aren't in education, but am a teacher today goes back to this like I had access to so much knowledge. And even though I don't have a teaching degree, I the state of Florida gave me access to become a teacher when I decided to because I can I was alternatively certified. So which is a great program.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

How do you feel like all of this has influenced your philosophy on teaching now? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Well, from the teacher side of it, I am now kind of like a mid-year veteran teacher in Scambe County. This is my seventh year in Scambe County, 10th year overall teaching. And so I'm not really like a new teacher anymore, which is weird to say. But we have new teachers who come in in the alternative certification, and they're quick to say, well, I don't really know how to do this, or I don't, I might not trust myself because I don't have an education degree. And I say immediately, Oh, but I was alternatively certified. Just because you don't have an education degree doesn't mean you're not fit for teaching. Yes, do you need to take classes to understand better the pedagogy and the theory and how to best to help your students in certain situations? Absolutely. But me having not having an education degree, but having degrees in all these other areas that I think are important that I bring to class every day, my anthropology studies, my sociology studies, my international studies, so many things I've learned over the years, my experiences through those, it's really important, I think, for teachers to have that as well. To be able to relate with their kids, to be able to say, okay, I don't understand where this kid is coming from or their culture, because we have students from other cultures, other countries who come to our school eventually, to be able to say, okay, but I can learn about that. I think it's really important. I think that's an excellent like portion of teaching these days.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, I think so too. What would you say to a prospective teacher who's maybe north of the county right now, and they're thinking about what's next, and they kind of have more of a fork in the road, maybe cognitively, because right, we all have choices that we can make, but you know, sometimes stubbornness works for us and that it it makes the decision internally for us, you know. I feel like that's you a little bit. Yeah. Like you're like, yeah, I'm going this way. Sorry, family of teachers. But what would you say to the prospective teacher out there or the current student in north of the county who has that cognitive choice in the road where they can choose to go this like traditional path, or they can branch out and kind of do what you did and see the world and maybe boomerang back?

SPEAKER_01 26:18

I would say whichever one you choose first, don't worry. You can choose the next later. I mean, I know that sounds like that's a I don't know if that's a good answer, but I've met so many people in my life who've changed careers after picking what they thought was the right choice at the time, then realizing later, oh, actually I really should have done this, which is really my story for teaching, right? So I I never chose it, but after I moved, okay, moved back from Cinnaval, was doing my master's in Boston, graduated from a master's, and I took like the perfect on-paper job at Boston City Hall. And I was working in a department that specialized in um doing all types of translations and interpretations for Bostonian citizens who English was their not first language. I thought, oh, this is gonna be great. And it was, but I hated going to work every day because I was in a cubicle and I was like emailing people all day instead of being out. And I'm very extroverted and I I like educating people about things. And so I was like, oh, I just I'm not sure I can do this. And I my real dream job at that time was to work for the Department of State and working at embassies abroad. So I went through that whole process. It's a really long process, like two years to get hired on. And I actually got to the final step. But in the meantime, I was like, I was calling my mom. I was like, mom, I can't, I can't, I can't do this. I can't stay at the city hall. Like, I just don't know what to do. And my mom's like, well, why don't you move back home and teach? And you can do that and travel while you're waiting on this interview stuff to go through, you know, like your grandmother did. I was like, Oh, okay, yeah, that's not a bad idea. So yeah, I moved back home with my parents, was living with my parents, and I was a 10-day count higher at Kingsfield Elementary in 2019. Yeah, 2019. Okay, remember that. Okay. So yeah. So I get back, I'm like, okay, actually, I'm really enjoying this, back in the swing of things with teaching, but I was still like gung-ho about this interview. It was really the last step. It's like basically as long as I did the interview well, I would get the job. And the interview was set for June of 2020. June of 2020.

unknown 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. And of course, March 13th, 2020, everything went crazy. And so the interview I was supposed to have with the State Department got postponed and ended up being indefinitely postponed because then there was like a hiring freeze and all this stuff for the State Department. But in the meantime, I was teaching and I was like, man, I didn't realize how much I missed this. And I just loved it so much. And especially kindergartners. I love teaching kindergartners first grade too. It's a new experience this year for me. But nine years before this, I've been teaching kindergarten. And really the thing that I wanted to do through that job with the embassy was to really bring humanity closer together. I know I sound like such a, I don't know, sad person. I don't know. But but again, going back to that, we really have more similarities than we do differences. And my time living in Senegal and then in Boston, which is totally another different culture than the South, really just kept showing me, you know, people are people. We do things the same way. If we can just kind of get past those exteriors with one another, we realized, you know, how close we are to each other. And I was like, I, you know, education, there's an education sector in the State Department that you can be part of. But then I started, I just realized, man, actually, what I'm trying to fix or do through my job, because I I that was my I need a purpose in my job, and I'm just that kind of person. And I've realized it really should be happening at five years old. You know, you really should be teaching mutual respect to people when they're five. Right? Like it and it is so true. And you really should be helping kids, you know. If I want people to succeed, they gotta start succeeding at five.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

And if I want the best for my brethren, I gotta start helping that at age five, or I mean, or earlier, right? But at that time it was like where I was age five. And that's just like I just fell in love. I just fell all over like fell in love with teaching. And I just realized, wow, this is actually, you know, where I should have been the whole time. But yeah, the whole time. But I'm glad it wasn't because I wasn't ready for it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Yeah. I love how your story has that. It's so it's such a good example. I feel like, you know, I asked you like what advice would you give a student in North of the County, but really your whole story is the example. It's like stronger than advice because instead of telling people what to do, you're really what you're saying through your story is create your own path and find that path yourself. And that's so beautiful. I know being on this mic today was not like top 10 of your experiences. So I really want to thank you for doing it because there's just like so many hidden treasures like you in Escambia County public schools that are just a little bit more hidden. You know, even though you said I'm an extrovert and I like to be out there, I wonder how many people would be surprised to learn this whole story. Yeah. And so thank you so much for sharing it today.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

I'm um more than happy to share. And I want to thank you for like helping bring it out of me because it is a lot to talk about and share, and it is so many, there are so many beautiful parts. But I also I agree there are so many people in this county who have things to share and experiences that are awesome, and that I'm I'm loving to hear them, hearing them as well.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scambia County Public School.