About Me

Hi! My name is Earvina Gatison, and I am an ESL teacher in the state of North Carolina.Originally, I am from Connecticut, but I moved down here in late 2008. This fall, I will be entering my fifth year teaching for the state. Teaching is a far cry from where I thought I would be doing while working towards my Bachelors degree.

For as far back as I could remember, I have always wanted to be a writer. At first, a writer of fiction and poetry. Then, while in college, I discovered both a passion and a talent for journalism. After joining the school newspaper I knew that news writing would become my destiny. I even accumulated enough courses where I ended up minoring in journalism (as well as history). My favorite professor took me under his wing as a protege of sorts, and I knew my next step was to work for The New York Times! That was my goal…until, in my sophomore year, I had an adventure that would forever change my path in life.

It was during my second year of college that I decided to participate in my school’s exchange program. My destination: Budapest, Hungary. While living in Hungary  during the fall semester of 2001, I met many other exchange students from other countries. Once they discovered that I was American, they all had the same question: Can you help me with my English? It was not until studying abroad that I had been introduced to something called TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). When I came home after my experience, I realized that the travel bug had bitten me, and hard-nosed journalism was a distant thought. In its place, was the idea of traveling the world as an English teacher. I made the idea a reality as I researched  different language schools in which to teach.

After spending 2004-2005 in various countries teaching, I decided to come back home and pursue teaching ESL (with much relief to my parents!)

Thus began my certification process which started in Connecticut, but ended in North Carolina just last year. However, as much as I enjoy teaching and learning about all of the wonderful cultures of my students, as of late, I have been considering leaving the K-12 classroom and help kids in a different capacity within higher education.

This is the reason why I am excited to be enrolled in the M.Ed. Higher Education Administration program. I have always enjoyed speaking to my kids and getting to know them and learning about their future aspirations and how they plan to reach them. I believe that one of the reasons my students have such a great rapport with me, is because they see that I am genuinely interested in developing their potential to become successful. Career counseling, or involving myself in student affairs, are career paths that I know I will enjoy immensely as I enjoy helping people find what they are good at.  I know the M.Ed. program at Post will help me to achieve my goals of enjoying a continued career in education, but this time, from behind the scenes!