^{Photo from left to right: Katherine Giliz Cusa, Almera Jane Amindato, Missi May Flores and Shelamie Santillan are several of the new teachers who are starting the new school year with Willmar Public Schools after being hired through an international teaching program. This is Willmar’s first year hiring teachers abroad to help address its staffing shortage. The teachers have the opportunity to stay teaching in Minnesota for up to five years before being required to return to their home countries for a two-year period before being able to reapply for teaching opportunities in the United States.  Hannah Yang | MPR News}

At Roosevelt Elementary School in Willmar, Shelamie Santillan hangs affirming messages that read, “We can be kind,” and “We can be helpers.”

“You want some? I have extra,” she tells three other teachers, who like her have traveled here from the Philippines to instruct students in math, science, social studies and language arts.

“It’s a big opportunity for us to be here as teachers,” said Santillan, as she readied her classroom for a new year and a new crop of third graders. She has ten years of teaching experience, but this is her first time teaching in the U.S.

It wasn’t an easy decision to come to Willmar. Santillan was worried that she would feel lost once she arrived. But she says district administrators and community members have given her a warm welcome.

Read the full article by MPR News