When Xzavea Wommack-Johnson graduated from Parsons High School in 2019, she was not sure what career path she wished to pursue in college, but she had an underlying inkling based on a passion she had developed while there. “Mrs. (Kerri) Hall was my Spanish teacher all four years in high school. She was caring and nurturing. … She really helped me develop my love for Spanish and so when I got to college I was like, ‘Okay I think I can be prepared enough to at least take my first class and let's see how it goes,’” Wommack-Johnson said. “I really wanted to dive into my passion for Spanish and the Hispanic culture because I was studying it so much.” When she applied to High Point University, she chose to major in Spanish and human relations and minor in leadership. She said Parsons High School provided her a great foundation to prepare her for college.
“It was hard, yeah. The fundamentals that were taught in high school prepared me for the college level classes, however being exposed to only listening to Spanish was a big change,” she said. “In high school we don't listen to it as often. It's more of a bilingual class.
“But my college classes were strictly in Spanish, so you get to dive right into it. Beginner classes are in English, but after those first two fundamental classes in Spanish, it was hard. They're super nice and they will help you, but you’ve really got to work for it.”
Prior to graduating from college she was still questioning what she wanted to do with her life and how she was going to incorporate Spanish. She was already working a job in HR, but felt she wanted to try other things. She decided to apply for a year-long teaching assistantship in Spain through the North American Language and Culture Assistantships Program (NALCAP).
NALCAP is the flagship program of the Education Office of the Embassy of Spain, located in Washington, D.C., which builds ties between the United States and Spain by fostering collaborative educational programs. NALCAP partners with elementary and secondary schools in nearly every city and town across Spain to welcome American teaching assistants.
“I was like, I'll just apply to this program and the worst thing that's going to happen is it's going to be a no and I'll stick to my HR job that I have,” she said. As it happened, Wommack-Johnson was one of the first two ever chosen from High Point University’s Spanish Program to participate. Given her willingness to take a chance, she will be teaching in Andalusia, Spain from Oct. 1 to May 31, 2024. “I'll be teaching in an elementary and their school system is a little bit different, but the age range is around 3-years-old to around 12-years-old. I'm going to be teaching, I think, science. So, I'll be helping them learn English that way.”
While teaching was not her initial focus in college, Wommack-Johnson said she worked at the YWCA in High Point with a childcare provider, and it sparked her love for helping children learn the language. In addition, in a service-learning class, she worked with a magnet school across from High Point University. The kindergarten class there was learning Spanish, which gave her classroom experience. It was enough to spark her interest and let her discover a passion for teaching children language. Hence, the NALCAP program seemed a perfect fit. “Being immersed in that culture is exciting to me. I believe I will enjoy helping others, knowing myself how difficult it is to learn a second language,” she said. If she finds she does not like it, she figures there will be an HR bilingual position for her somewhere.
She is currently going through the tedious process of getting her Visa. She plans to arrive Sept. 22, to give her a little time to find a place to live and find her way around the area. She said she has connected with some other girls her age and believes she has found some roommates.
If she finds she loves her teaching assignment, she plans to reapply as a teacher and can actually switch locations if she wants to live somewhere else in the country for a while.
“So if I had to choose, now I would say I would do the program again because the idea of being immersed in that culture is so appealing to me and I'm so excited to go,” she said, “but obviously you never know what happens.”
Thinking back to high school and the uncertainty she faced then, she said it is important for students in the same position to understand how they look at a situation is important, and the choice is up to them. They can think it is scary because they don’t know what to do or they can think it is exciting because they don’t know what to do. While she admittedly faced some scary moments, Wommack-Johnson said she kept her focus on her excitement for what could be next, and it is now leading her on an incredible journey she would have not imagined.
To today’s high school students, Wommack-Johnson recommends they do everything at school they can, try everything, even if they don’t want to do it, to allow themselves to be exposed to different opportunities. “You just never know which opportunity you will like,” she said, “so try everything. If you hate it then good, you know you don't like. Or, you can continue that passion.” Also, she said, “I would tell them it's okay to not know what they want to do because it may seem like I know what I'm doing, or the next person knows what they're doing, but really you just figure it out as you go.” “It's hard to decide what you want in life if you don't know what's out there exactly,” Wommack-Johnson said. “I know not everyone has that, you know, comfortability of exploring, but you just learn so much about yourself. “You can always come back to Parsons, but you need to get away and learn and experience different things, just to know what else there is out there.”
NOTE: “Where Are They Now” will be on ongoing feature produced monthly or bi-monthly by USD 503 focusing on Parsons High School graduates. If people know of a Parsons High School graduate who has fairly recently graduated from college, tech school, has received a certification, or has entered directly into the workforce and is now pursuing their career, USD 503 would be interested in doing feature stories on them, highlighting the successes of all of our students and the great things they are doing. If you have an idea of someone you think would make a good feature for the district’s new “Where Are They Now,” you can contact Colleen Williamson, USD 503 director of public relations at colleenwilliamson@vikingnet.net, or at (620)820-1408.