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From China!

Darlington native and Columbia College student Tempestt Gavins will teach English abroad in Shanghai this summer from July 5 to August. A graduate and valedictorian of Darlington High School, Gavins feels her love for English as a subject will be put to good use in China. “I really began to love literature and writing so much that I felt like I could instill that same love and that same joy into my students as my teachers did me,” Gavins says.
            
She learned about the abroad program through email and received feedback within two weeks of applying. The program is through the United Chinese Culture Center in Columbia, and Gavins will have a ‘Teaching English as a Second Language’ certificate.
            
Gavins, who previously traveled to China in 2008, says she is both excited and anxious. Her main source of nervousness is how she will adjust to a new language.
           
 “I’m not fluent in Mandarin, and I’m just learning the language so I have a little bit of nervousness about it, but I know God led the way so He will take me there,” Gavins says. “I know there will be more training, so that makes me less nervous.”
            
She is excited about getting to travel and having the opportunity to have an impact and to learn from other cultures. One of the villages she visited on her first trip was standing in the aftermath of an earthquake, but the spirit and the attitudes of the locals were positive when they arrived. “I went there as a regular American teenager with all the luxuries that some of them don’t get to experience, and I was completely humbled,” Gavins says.
            
Gavins will have an assistant fluent in Mandarin and will be provided with lessons on not only how to speak Mandarin, but also on Chinese culture and history. Gavins’ previous trip to China was part of the Oprah’s Ambassadors Club at Darlington High School.
           
 “[The club] had just started my senior year, but I really enjoyed it because it had a teaching component that other clubs didn’t really have,” Gavins says. “It taught you about the different cultures we were trying to raise money for.”
            
Gavins feels her experiences with the Oprah’s Ambassadors Club as well as key faculty members prepared her for the journey she is about to take.
            
“I honestly feel I had the best teachers for me at Darlington High School, and I feel like they challenged me to the point of wanting to do more than I was doing,” Gavins says. “I really feel like a lot of teachers prepared me.”
           
 Her work at Columbia College, a women’s college, is also providing her with much character building. “Whether it’s academically or in my personal beliefs, I feel it is really shaping me into the adult that I want to be,” Gavins says. “Because I’m being challenged so often, I’m having to defend what I know, what I believe, and think about it more critically.”
            
Currently at Columbia College she works as a resident academic advisor, which she feels is very similar to the work of a teacher. She is also head of the English Majors Society on campus and will be president next year.

By Matthew Smith, staff writer, The News and Press, Darlington, S.C.
Reproduced with permission.