Outbound to Panama

The RITE program was started in our District by Ralph and Armida Hight in 1996. It is a joint project of the Rotary Clubs of West Wichita and West Sedgwick County–Sunrise and has grown to involve additional clubs in our District. The inbound portion of the project includes receiving teachers from Panama and Argentina for 4 weeks mid-January to mid-February. The outbound portion includes sending teachers from the Wichita area to Panama for 4 weeks during their summer break. Today, three teachers from Wichita will speak to our club about their experience in Panama this summer.

Ms. Katie Brinkman is a Spanish teacher at Wichita Southeast High School. She is a proud KSU graduate earning Bachelor of Family Studies and Human Services in 2008. She stayed at KSU and continued her Master of Spanish Second Language Acquisition and earned her Kansas Teaching Certificate in 2013. She began her teaching career at Blessed Sacrament School in Wichita in August 2013 until 2016. She then moved into a job with Kansas Children’s Service League as a Kinship Navigator & Circle of Parents Coordinator for the following two years. She joined the Southeast HS Staff at the start of the 2018-2019 school year where she is currently. Katie is a traveler and a lifelong learner and has traveled to Ecuador, Puerto Rico, London, England, Switzerland, and Belgium. She studied abroad in Mexico for six weeks and returned on several occasions for cultural studies and vacation. Katie participated in the 2023 Outbound RITE program for new opportunities of living in the Panamanian culture in an authentic way to share her experiences with her future students. She believes her students will benefit through her first-hand knowledge of time spent as a RITE teacher.

Mrs. April Gomez is a French teacher at Wichita Southeast High School. She has also studied and knows Spanish and is a French-English Translator. April began her educational career as a Special Education Paraprofessional  from 1997-2002 at Horace Mann School. During this time, she returned to college and transitioned into a substitute teacher at Wichita East High School. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in French and French Literature from the University of Washington in 2005. She earned her Teaching License in 2013. These experiences led her into a French Teaching Position at Wichita East High from 2012 to 2016 and then into her current position at Southeast HS.  April participated in the 2023 Outbound RITE to fulfill a lifelong dream and goal: to help educate those in other countries and learn about the people, the teachers of English in Panama and their cultures. She was also motivated to go to Panama to share her experiences with many immigrant students at her school. These methodologies will allow students to open their worldview to possibly have something to help others. April loves to travel and meet new people. She has studied and visited France with particular attention to Paris and has traveled to Ireland, England, Spain, Mexico and Canada.  

Mr. David Mace is a Special Education teacher at Wichita Southeast High School. Dave has taken a long road to becoming a teacher. He earned a Bachelor of Finance in 1992 at Baker University and a Master of AgriBusiness from KSU in 2005.  To move in a teaching career, Dave earned a Master of Special Education in 2021 from WSU.  He also studied and advanced his Spanish language skills throughout his college and work experiences and has knowledge of the Norwegian language. After a varied career of 25 years in Business, AgriBusiness, Marketing, Communications, Accounting and Finance, Dave moved into his career shifted into an interest in education by starting a Master of Special Education at WSU. He took a job as a paraprofessional in the Andover Public Schools during the 2017- 2018 school year. His teaching career moved him to the Wichita Public Schools at West High and currently at Southeast HS at the start of the 2018-2019 school year. Dave participated in the 2023 Outbound RITE Program to bring effective teaching techniques and strategies to a wider professional audience. He has an affinity for other cultures and newcomers. He believes his strengths are communication and building relationships with others. This program allowed Dave his first opportunity to travel to a foreign country to bolster his passion for furthering cultural understanding with teachers and Rotarians by being a RITE Teacher.