For international educator Connie Mosquera, teaching has never been simply a profession—it has been a constant source of purpose, stability, and renewal across continents and life’s most unexpected challenges.
Born and raised in Colombia in a family of educators, Connie initially chose teaching for practical reasons. A degree in language education promised steady employment and the flexibility she hoped would allow her to balance career and family. What she could not have foreseen was that international education—and the global professional community she later found through Search Associates—would help her navigate profound personal loss, rebuild her life across countries, and ultimately return to the international classroom stronger than ever.
Connie taught in Colombia for six years before she and a group of fellow Colombian educators embraced an opportunity to teach Spanish in the United Kingdom while learning new teaching methodologies. What began as a one-year professional experience became the starting point of a lifelong international career.
Connie met her husband, Nick, when he was working as a GIS Specialist at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), a research center in Cali, Colombia. They dated for a year before their paths took them in different directions: Connie moved to the United Kingdom, while Nick accepted a position in Aleppo, Syria, with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), continuing his work in agricultural research. Connie later joined Nick in Aleppo as an “accompanying spouse,” while continuing to develop both her professional identity and her global perspective as an educator.
When Connie and Nick later moved to California, she worked at a Montessori school. The family then relocated to Vermont for several years before Nick accepted a leadership role managing a major project in Myanmar. This time, the couple embarked on another international move with their two young sons. In Myanmar, Connie secured a six-month substitute position teaching English at a French school. It was there that colleagues first introduced her to Search Associates (SEARCH).
Soon after, Connie’s life changed dramatically when her husband passed away unexpectedly. Living in Southeast Asia with little boys, she faced the immense task of rebuilding her life and career. One of her first steps was registering with SEARCH, where former Senior Associate John and his wife Susan Ritter immediately began offering guidance and reassurance during an extraordinarily difficult time.
Connie ultimately chose to return to Vermont. There, she dedicated herself fully to earning her U.S. teaching license, adding endorsements in both Spanish and elementary education. She gradually returned to the classroom, first as a Spanish teacher then as a Grade 2 teacher at a public school in the town of Middlebury, while raising her sons. Over the next seven years, Vermont became a place of stability and renewal. Reflecting on this period, Connie shares:
Within the last 10–15 years, I realized that I really loved this, especially little kids. I taught second grade for the last three years in Vermont before I was ready for a change of scenery.
In the fall of 2025, ready to return to international education, Connie reactivated her SEARCH file and was connected with Senior Associate Brian Lettinga. Brian supported her through every stage of the recruitment process: sharing CV samples, offering practical advice, and helping her prepare for interviews.
It was a tough process. I sent a lot of applications and went through Zoom interviews,” she recalls.
After progressing through multiple interview rounds, Connie received an offer from a school in Laos and accepted the position in December. She began preparing for another international move—arranging housing, organizing documentation, purchasing flights, and even preparing for the relocation of her dog Otto.
Then, unexpectedly, plans changed once again. In April, she received an email from the Head of School explaining that, due to global political developments and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), she would no longer be able to relocate to Laos. She remembers thinking, “No way; this is not happening to me.”
Connie immediately contacted Brian to reactivate her candidacy. Despite entering the late recruitment season—with applications submitted in May for an August start—new opportunities quickly emerged. Within weeks, she was interviewing with schools in both India and Japan.
Today, Connie is thriving in the second half of her first school year at Hokkaido International School in Niseko, Japan, a small international school nestled in a mountain town. Unlike its sister campus in Sapporo, Niseko serves a unique seasonal community, where some students enroll for only part of the year. The entire K–8 school serves just 40 students, with combined grade classrooms including Connie’s second- and third-grade class. She reflects on both the challenges and rewards of this environment:
The challenge is the kids coming and going. It is just sad to see them go after you have made great connections in period of time. Parents returning to Australia, come for the season, some just to ski. Some parents taking a break here enroll their children in school for a brief time. But the kids take learning seriously, and the parents are very supportive.
Connie’s own family has embraced her return to international education. Her eldest son, Sebastian (23), a graduate of the University of Vermont in computer science, now lives and works locally while maintaining the family home. Her younger son Dominic (21) is studying photography at Arts University Plymouth in the United Kingdom. "The boys are third culture kids. They are used to traveling and living overseas. We have been traveling since they were little, especially to the UK and Colombia to visit family. In fact, my son Sebastian is coming to Japan on Monday for three weeks. Dominic came to visit for the holiday break, and we traveled to Tokyo," says Connie.
Connie’s journey reflects the resilience, adaptability, and global spirit shared by so many international educators. Through personal loss, professional reinvention, and unexpected setbacks, she has continued to move forward, guided by her passion for teaching and supported by a worldwide community that helped her return to the classroom she loves. She encourages you to make the leap:
It is a great opportunity to make meaningful connections with students and colleagues from all over the world. Living and teaching in another country encourages lifelong learning!
