From a rural classroom to the world stage
Empowered by education and fuelled by ambition, meet Jesús Ramírez, a Chevening scholar who knows no limits.
Jesús Ramírez is a Chevening Scholar from Mexico. Through his experience in the UK, he has managed to break stereotypes and defy expectations. We asked him to share his experience with us.
I grew up in the city of Kanasin in the State of Yucatán, notorious for violence and poverty. People from Yucatan always make derogatory comments about my city, and its citizens are labelled negatively for life. As I grew up, the pejorative comments about Kanasin began to affect me. Even now, the city is poor, and opportunities to get out are limited. I recognise and am grateful for my mother’s support; she has always been there for me, encouraging me to study outside of Kanasin, which introduced me to healthier environments and gave me a different perspective on life.
Since I was 9 years old, I always wanted to be a teacher. No one was surprised when I decided to study secondary education specialising in foreign languages (English). In 2018, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree and started working at a secondary school in the municipality of Hunucmá in Yucatán.
In my first year as a teacher, I became aware of the negative stereotypes about teachers. The comments were always the same: teachers are lazy, they only babysit, they have many vacations, and they do not do any work. This feedback surprised me because my fellow teachers were always designing activities to help students learn and grow. Then I realised that the people making these comments had never taught classes or been a teacher.
That is how I came to create “Teachers with Identity,” a podcast where teachers share stories on the impact their work has on the community. We also share learning and development opportunities in further education. For example, we always promote the UK’s Chevening Programme and describe how it changes people’s lives.
During the pandemic and with support from the Abako Foundation, the podcast evolved to help train teachers to work effectively online. In addition, the podcast worked closely with a psychologist to provide well-being and mental health support to teachers dealing with COVID-19.
There came a time when I wanted to teach more than my regular subjects. Hence, I gained certification from National Geographic. This certification teaches educators how to include more global issues into their teaching through the National Geographic Learning Framework. As a result, a park ranger from Kenya visited the municipality of Cacalchén in Yucatan and met the students at my school. For a whole year, the students kept in touch with the ranger, joined in many new activities, and learned about a completely new world in Africa. This encouraged them to think big and expand their ambitions.
Between 2020 and 2021, I coordinated a new initiative called “Yucatan Speaks English,” where students had the opportunity to connect with people whose first language is English. This activity directly addressed the need for future teachers to speak more fluent English.
In 2022, I received a Chevening Scholarship to study for a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Administration at the University of Warwick. I became the first graduate from my college in Yucatan to participate in the Chevening Programme. This experience taught me so much and changed my life for the better. Now, I waste no opportunities to share this wonderful experience with others. Chevening gave me the confidence to aim higher; it is my dream to one day become a senior official in the Ministry of Education.
Jesús said: “Living for a year in the United Kingdom allows you to meet people from all over the world with diverse experience and perspectives. The ties that Chevening creates in that year strengthen both the United Kingdom and Mexico.”