Opening up the global village to students through Spanish
Sugar Ray Thomas
In an era where globalization has taken centre stage, speaking a foreign language is an asset. Lecturer in Spanish at the Moneague College, Nicola Maxwell-Johnson has been doing her part in ensuring that the student in her charge are prepared to venture into the global sphere armed with the skills of communicating in Spanish.
The St Ann-born woman, who has 10 years under her belt in education, is a true representation of determination. Mrs Maxwell-Johnson fought fiercely with the challenges of poverty and living in rural St. Ann to evolve into being a Prime Minister Youth Awardee in 2010, past JCDC Festival Queen for St. Ann in 2007, past teacher of Spanish at Ocho Rios High for seven years and now, for the past three years, lecturer in Spanish at the Moneague College.
THE CHALLENGES
Born Nicola Maxwell, she grew up in Orange Hall, near Walkerswood in St Ann. She lived with her mother, Desrine Douse and her five siblings; three sisters and two brothers.
“It was rough, because growing up poor, my mother worked at a flower farm, but of course, she did what she could to ensure that we as children got a good education even though she did not go beyond primary level education,” Mrs Maxwell-Johnson explained.
She went to Thatch Hill in St. Mary and resided with her aunt to attend Newstead All Age School (now Primary School). She also did a term at Walkerswood All Age School.
After passing the Common Entrance Exam, Nicola went to St. Hilda’s High School in Brown’s Town and even then, there were more challenges. “Going to St. Hilda’s, I can remember there were problems in terms of reaching school early because of the distance where I lived in Orange Hall. It was three miles from the road and sometimes you’d have to walk it. My stepfather, Albert Malcolm, would take me to the bus stop to get transport. By the time I got to Ocho Rios, buses were gone and I reached school late,” Mrs Maxwell-Johnson revealed.
Despite those challenges, she graduated from high school with passes in eight CXC subjects.
She did one year of the HEART/Trust NTA School Leavers Programme, where she got her first introduction to teaching, as a pre-trained teacher at the Walkerswood All Age School.
From there she went to Shortwood Teacher’s College and studied Spanish. “My mother supported my decision to go to college. Though we didn’t know where the money would come from, help came all over from other family members and other persons,” she said.
“I’ve never been a person to be suppressed by my challenges, because there are always going to be obstacles. You have to put your first foot forward and be especially persistent,” she added.
THE EDUCATOR
After graduating from Shortwood Teacher’s College in 2006 with a teacher certificate in Spanish and Linguistics, she gained employment as a teacher of Spanish at the Ocho Rios High School. “I spent seven good years at Ocho Rios High,” she said.
She was once in charge of the School Challenge Quiz team.
In 2013, she took up employment at the Moneague College, where she currently lectures in Spanish. Mrs Maxwell-Johnson also has played an active role in making Spanish a feature of the College’s life as recent as the Moneague Day at the college. There was a Spanish village set up to highlight Spanish culture.
OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
While her life as an educator took shape, Mrs Maxwell-Johnson’s life outside the classroom also began to lead to an exciting new adventure.
She won the St Ann Festival Queen competition in 2007 and thereafter, worked closely with JCDC in the parish to train contestants entering the competition. She also served as a judge for the St Ann competition up to 2013.
Mrs Maxwell-Johnson was also nowhere ready to cool her thirst for further education, and so graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Language Education in 2010 from the open campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). She attained her degree with excellence as she achieved a 3.9 GPA and for this success received the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Academic Excellence also in 2010.
In addition, she received the most outstanding online student award from the faculty of Humanities and Education at UWI.
She is pursuing her master’s degree in Teacher Education and Teacher Development, from UWI.
SPIRITUAL LIFE
Her spiritual life has grown too. She got baptized in 2008 and became an active member of the Assemblies of the First Born in Colegate, St Ann. There, she was involved in youth ministry, the choir and praise and worship.
Love also walked into her heart, as she married Michael Johnson, pastor of the Assemblies of the First Born Church of God in Endeavour, St Mary, in 2012. Their union so far has produced a daughter, Joelle Johnson. Together, they reside in Walkerswood, St Ann.
SPANISH AS A TOOL
While admitting that some students will have a “mind block” towards Spanish, Mrs Johnson advises her students to “not think of it as a subject to pass, but rather to think of Spanish as something you can use further on in life, because you never know where it can take you.”
And for Mrs Maxwell-Johnson, Spanish has been a vehicle that has allowed her to gain exposure to other countries. Recently, she was on scholarship from the Chilean government as a part of a programme for Spanish teachers from the Caribbean. In 2009, she also was a recipient of a Colombian scholarship. She has also gone on missionary trips as a translator with the Fresh Bread ministries in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
She sees herself remaining in education and even advancing to leadership roles in the future.
As a young woman who overcame several challenges, her advice to young people is: “Don’t let your circumstances define what you can become. Seek out opportunities and scholarships. You have to know what you want and go after it. Don’t get side tracked and be able to set priorities…For me going through my life, the only way out of poverty was through education and education is a vital too.”
When not busy she enjoys reading inspirational books, playing word games (scrabble, words search etc), spending time with family and traveling.
“There are times you would say you would venture into a new career, but I can’t see myself in any other field except teaching. I like being in the classroom and interacting with the students from different cross sections of life. I also like to influence as a teacher, because I believe that positive influence is needed in society,” added Mrs Maxwell-Johnson.
