Katie Watchorn - Question #11

Yes, hello. Um My name is Katie

Watchorn and I'm recording my response to question number 11

for the Teach for America Fellowship.

Um And this question is,

how has your sociocultural identity shaped

your experiences in education thus far?

And I'd have to say that I grew up in Cincinnati

until I was about 13 years old before moving here to

Michigan.

Um and going to high school here uh where I currently teach is a huge privilege.

But um I was actually raised by a single parent

and she's raising two kids. So,

um

and she also was living on a moderately low income

and this is something that I had to grow up with and I

had to work hard for every single thing I got my car,

my phone, everything I needed to do, I needed to be able to support and get myself.

So this is something that I grew up with.

And I think it made me appreciate things and in a whole new light

um in regard to social i social cultural identities that have the most impact

um on my experience as an educator.

Um I would have to say where um where I grew up, my career

and my family. Um and I'll just break those down. So where I grew up here in the Sioux

is a low income community. And um this is where um I'm trying to appreciate um

how a lot of students might not have a background in this area

because the fact that they had never been abroad and experienced other cultures,

which is important to be more open minded and see that

there are other ways of doing things in your own.

Um

And then also my career, I've been, I've been to Miami Florida, I've been to Italy,

I've been to many different countries.

I'm a huge avid traveler and especially with my M B A and International Business.

The program consisted of two individuals from

every country to make it more diversified.

And you were able to get an experience with people living at different

countries and how they conduct business and in the way they do business.

And it was hugely eyeopening and rewarding

experience that I limited a tremendous amount

about how different cultural cultures work and how

they process information the whole nine yards.

So that was a huge experience for me and my family.

Uh my family, like I said before I speak Italian. Well, I um

uh and I can get by in Italian

and my husband is Italian and my whole family is

learning Italian and my daughter is fluent at four.

So we try to maintain a huge multicultural um environment here in my house,

even though we're here in the States.

And I definitely try to bring that in my classroom

being culturally aware and,

and know um experiences and appreciate the culture that you're in,

makes it that much more rewarding.

And that's something I'd like to emphasize as well as um the

last question is how if at all has your sense of,

of your own social cultural identity evolved.

Um Like I said, uh I lived abroad, I've gained experiences abroad in education.

I taught abroad.

So I was able to teach English and social media marketing to schools,

businesses uh in, in Italian military.

And it just was, and I bring that back to my class and I tell you what,

it's one of those experiences that I'm so grateful for and um

and it's something that I'm very passionate about. So, thank you so much.

I look forward to hearing from you about this fellowship and I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Katie Watchorn - Question #11

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