Heather Smith

Heather Smith graduated from Stagg High School in 1999. It was when she returned to her alma mater as a teacher’s aid that she discovered her passion for teaching. Once she discovered this passion, she was determined to get her teaching degree as a Learning Behavior Specialist from Northern Illinois University. In 2008, she graduated with honors and worked for Charter Schools in Chicago. There she showed great leadership and found a passion for working with English Language Learners. On a trip to Costa Rica in 2008 with her future husband, Heather was introduced to the program Teaching English as a Foreign Language. That trip inspired the couple to save money over the course of the next few years and start their own business teaching English. In 2013, they moved to Nicaragua where Heather started a TEFL training center. This rapidly growing center has trained over 300 teachers and provided affordable English classes to community members. Through her program, Heather and the teachers she trains support an orphanage day school and an after school program for more than 100 students per year. Learning English as a foreign language (the language of business and commerce worldwide) is a luxury only offered to the most elite of society in Nicaragua. Volunteers work to close the socioeconomic gap through English language education.