One woman’s journey to transform education in the Galápagos Islands

Interviewer: You mentioned you worked in the Galápagos Islands. Could you describe the differences that you saw between the Galápagos Islands education system and the US?

Judith: You don't even want to get going on that. I found it scary. 

The Galápagos Islands are what Americans would call a cash cow for Ecuador. It has a tremendous tourism income that Ecuador loves. When I was there, I went to a classroom and there was a lovely picture on the wall done by some kid, a glorious picture of the sun shining brightly. And the caption was, “The sun is the biggest planet in space.” 

That was scary. So, that's how it started. 

I got to go to the Galapagos two or three or four times a year. What's wrong with that? (Chuckles).
The income was not necessary, so I invested in a program in the United States in Virginia, which trains teachers. 

All my income from almost 20 years went into programs that educated teachers and trained teachers to teach the importance of education in these kids' minds. The program is still going. They have all sorts of people from the states signing up for the program.

These are students from Stanford, the University of Texas, and different universities that have been involved in training teachers to do a good job for their students in the Galápagos Islands. 

Interviewer: Do you have any notable stories where you feel your teaching has impacted a community?

Judith: Well, I am not a teacher, myself. But I know the training and the effort that has gone into upgrading the teachers in the Galapagos Islands has been terrific. 

Some have been able to come to the States for extra training. But, mostly people from the States have gone there training teachers to upgrade what they're teaching kids in the islands. 

After a while, some of these kids had a good enough basis to go to university on the mainland. That was a big deal for them. So it paid off that way.