Students always had questions when they walked into former math teacher Alaina Shelton’s room for their Algebra 2 class.
Am I in the right place? Do you share a room with a social studies teacher?
The international map covering the wall threw them off — they were used to posters of fractions and multiplication signs. Sure, Shelton was a math teacher, but she’s always looking to share her love for internationalism with her students.
“I have always had a very international heart,” Shelton said. “[I told students questioning the map], ‘You are in my room once a day, you are going to learn some math today. But you might also learn about a foreign country that I happen to know somebody in.’”
It’s possible the map on her wall foreshadowed her future — Shelton is now nearing the one-year mark of working as the Principal at El Camino Academy (ECA), a 400-student, K-12, non-profit Christian school in Bogotá, Colombia that serves foreign, missionary and other Christian families to train bilingual future leaders.
She was finally able to leave the United States and move in with her two roommates in Bogotá in January after setbacks from COVID-19, and is working with her students in-person two days a week after previously working remotely.
It was never in Shelton’s plan to move specifically to Bogotá and work with ECA, although she’s always wanted to teach abroad. Her plan was always to teach internationally and leave the United States after college — anywhere but the U.S., where she’s spent a majority of her life.
She spent her summers working with Teach Beyond, a program placing teachers in educational experiences globally, where she originally ended up at ECA in the summer of 2016.
“That first trip in 2016 was the first time that I had spent any more than two weeks out of the country,” Shelton said. “And then being able to work every summer, so 2016, 2017, I was here in Colombia, and 2018, 2019, I was in Greece — that was amazing.”
In January of 2019, Shelton received a call from a former colleague during her summer at ECA. There was an opening at the school for an administrative position — and they wanted her.
“I kind of blindly said yes,” Shelton said. “I knew that things were going to be a little dicey, but I didn’t really know what that was going to look like. So really [I was] just trying to live on faith and to believe that this is what the Lord has for me, and that this is where I needed to be in the world doing education.”
Since arriving in Bogotá, Shelton’s dived into her new role at ECA — training new teachers, designing curriculum and working with students. While teaching in Johnson County came with a staff of over 90 licensed teachers, Shelton’s staff in Bogotá is only 14, with many having more than just teaching backgrounds, such as engineering and nursing.
Shelton appreciates the unique value that having a variety of experienced professionals teaching subjects brings — and she loves to help them brainstorm how to teach different units. On one day, Shelton will spend an hour with the health teacher, previously a nurse, brainstorming what content to include in the drugs and alcohol section before going to work with a student she’s individually teaching math to.
Shelton is grateful that many foundational pieces of learning curriculum, like graphing lines or understanding a book’s plot, stay the same no matter where you are.
While the education is similar, living in Bogotá altered her day-to-day life — but she loves the change. She never knew she would find excitement in discovering her favorite foods, peanut butter and trail mix, in Colombian grocery stores.
Shelton may have to walk a half mile to get to the grocery store while carrying all her groceries in her backpack, eat more carbs to keep up with the 8,500-feet altitude elevation and plan her daily runs before the 6 p.m. sunset, but these little changes are worth it as she experiences this new life.
Shelton always encouraged students to leave their comfort zones at East. Educating young people and training future leaders isn’t new to her at all.
“I tell every student that I’ve ever had the opportunity to speak to, ‘Spend whatever time you can abroad and get to understand the big gigantic world that God has created,’” Shelton said. “Because there are so many things outside of our little Johnson County bubble.”
Senior Sarah Bingham had Shelton as a teacher during her freshman and sophomore year, and still remembers seeing the different places Shelton traveled to on her wall. She valued Shelton’s commitment for making students excited to travel the world, and to making them always feel welcome.
“She’d ask you about how things were going, and I felt like she actually cared about what you’re talking about and what was happening in your life,” Bingham said. “She gave a really welcoming environment.”
There are certain aspects of East Shelton admits she misses — spirit days, keeping score at sports games, visits from the coffee cart. She even keeps one of her favorite East T-shirts in her room. More than anything, she misses the collaboration with the large groups of teachers at East, given her current small school department.
Math teacher Adam Cumley has known Shelton since college when he was sent to observe teachers at Lawrence High School, where Shelton was working at the time. Having known her, he wasn’t surprised by her move and change in roles — he’s seen her strong adaptability.
“We get along well, we help each other if need be,” Cumley said. “[Shelton] was always very thorough, so if you ever need anything from her, she was always there.”
Her adaptability aids in her success teaching in a new culture. While Shelton’s not completely fluent in Spanish, it’s her second language and she’s spent a great deal of time studying it — she is able to speak with her students consistently in Spanish or let a taxi driver know where she’s headed.
As for the future, Shelton is unsure. She’ll remain in Bogotá until June when she returns for her wedding, but will continue working with ECA remotely through at least September. With her fiance working with the U.S. Department of State, the two will be moved to different embassies globally about every three years starting in the fall.
But Shelton knows that wherever in the world she ends up, she’ll be happy experiencing the world as she’s always planned to, teaching no matter where she is.
“Right now, I’m theoretically moving to a whole other country in September, and I have no idea where I’m moving,” Shelton said. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen quite yet, but I know it’ll all work out.”