Marcela de Fátima Ocampo is a French teacher, having graduated from the IES “Lola Mora,” and a Literature teacher, having graduated from the National University of Tucumán. At various points in her life, she received scholarships from the Argentine Ministry of Education: first as a language assistant in France and later as a recipient of the Argentine Teachers’ Program scholarship in the United States. From 2017 to 2023, she served as the jurisdictional and pedagogical coordinator for the International Scholarship Program at the Tucumán Ministry of Education. Here, she shares some of her experiences with international mobility and how it impacted her work in public policy management.
“When I think about the International Scholarship Program of my country’s Ministry of Education, words like opportunity, growth, excitement, and gratitude come to mind. And I immediately recall the extraordinary news of having been selected for a scholarship.”
The first time, I was very young and had never left the country, so it was all a dream. I must confess, moreover, that from the moment I received the news that I had been awarded the Scholarship for Argentine Language Assistants in France by the Ministry of Education and the French Embassy, I couldn’t sleep for many days. My heart was bursting with joy. As a French teacher and former student of the Escuela Normal en Lenguas Vivas in Tucumán, I had studied French since the fourth grade. Therefore, I felt that I had been preparing my whole life for this trip, which, without the scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to take.
I enjoyed and made the most of every second of my stay in Paris. I remember the multiethnic and multicultural encounter with French teachers from all five continents, the language immersion, the didactic and methodological training for teaching French as a foreign language, the long walks through the city, and the opportunity to appreciate monuments and museums I had always heard about. That experience transformed my life, and my return had a profound impact on my classes, not only academically, but also in my ability to inspire my students to connect with the world and instill in them the confidence that they could dream, grow, soar, travel… If I hadn’t received that scholarship, I probably would have been a good teacher, but the emotion, gratitude, and happiness that trip brought me undoubtedly strengthened my passion for teaching and changed my personal and professional life forever.
Many years later, the International Scholarship Program and the INFoD of the Ministry of Education, together with the Fulbright Commission, launched a call for short-term scholarships for teachers that allowed them to participate in seminars at American universities. The requirements were numerous and the evaluation process thorough, but it was worth taking on the challenge and turning it into a new opportunity.
Finally, I received the scholarship and was able to share a learning-filled trip to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with teachers from different provinces . There, we attended courses on Leadership and Educational Management and Innovation, visited schools, and interviewed teachers and school leaders. In this second experience, I focused on the education system and on finding opportunities to foster dialogue between pedagogies and classroom practices from different perspectives and methodological approaches. This allowed me to critically examine the concept of educational innovation, investigate the workings of an education system, learn about other forms of institutional management, and understand their challenges—some similar to our own, others quite different. It was also an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate the commitment of Argentine teachers, to recognize the State’s efforts to maintain a free, quality public education for all citizens—despite the many challenges we continually face—and to value the opportunities available to students that promote social and educational justice, such as the Progresar , Bicentennial, and International Scholarships, the Conectar Igualdad Program, and Canal Encuentro. It was also an extraordinary experience because many of us teachers who traveled there recognized ourselves in that perspective. Perhaps that’s why, upon our return, we formed a strong learning community that fosters the exchange of ideas with students, colleagues, and friends. In Tucumán, we also produced various educational events: talks, discussions, panels, training sessions, two books, a report with suggestions on how to return to classes after the pandemic, and, as is fitting, many social gatherings
For several years, I had the privilege of serving as the coordinator of the International Scholarship Program in my province. I recognize in each new international scholarship recipient who arrives in the region, and in each student or teacher from Tucumán who departs for another country to fulfill their scholarship, countless opportunities for self-discovery and learning that will multiply in the classroom. I foresee in each of them countless connections with the world and the creation of bonds of solidarity with other realities. For this reason, through my work in this role, I facilitated meetings between those who have already had the experience and those who aspire to it. I organized visits to schools and motivational talks by scholarship recipients with high school and university students so they could learn about the calls for applications that open annually, imagine their futures, and forge their own paths by looking toward the vast horizon. I wanted them to understand the need to study diligently and be prepared to transform challenges into opportunities, and to know that, beyond all difficulties, here and now, it is possible to dream.
But of course, I also always hoped that their return would be as important as the trip and that when they came back, they would share the lessons learned and encourage fellow students to explore their own possibilities and interests and to apply for a scholarship.
In short, I am immensely grateful for this healthy Argentine custom of investing in educational scholarships, which has been shaping better futures for thirty years now.
We suggest you read about the experience of María Elena, an early childhood teacher from Santa Cruz who was a scholarship recipient at the same university and, with other colleagues from other provinces, wrote the book “Miradas al Liderazgo y la Innovación UCLA”.
And a curious fact: you can read the story of José , a biologist from the National University of San Luis, who also received scholarships from the Ministry of Education on two occasions.