Lourdes (“Lou-Lou”) Rodriguez  has 21 years of teaching experience, including 15 years at the high school level and 5 years in elementary education in the provinces of Bocas del Toro and David, Chiriquí, Panamá. She is a member of the English Coordinators Network of Chiriquí Province and serves as the English Department Coordinator at her school. This will be her first trip to the United States. She has previously traveled to Costa Rica, Colombia, Spain, El Salvador, and the Netherlands, and spent three months in India pursuing advanced English studies. Lou-Lou leads a Design for Change project through Terpel, supporting students with visual impairments and promoting bullying prevention. She has also worked in children’s English camps organized by Quality Leadership University. Lou-Lou is participating in the RITE program to gain new teaching ideas and engage in cultural exchange, with the goal of enriching her classes and expanding her students’ understanding of the world.

Marianne (“Mari”) Lopez has been a Secondary English Teacher since 2022 and also works as a translator. She embraces Project-Based Learning and has experience teaching multigrade classes and students at diverse proficiency levels. Mari has traveled to the United Kingdom to study English and spent one month in China in 2019 attending a Vocational Education seminar. Mari is participating in the RITE program to enhance her teaching skills, explore innovative educational practices, and deepen her understanding of English instruction. She hopes to bring new strategies, technology, and engaging learning experiences to her students, while collaborating with fellow educators and sharing best practices with colleagues.

Leticia (Lety) Torielli, General Pinto, Buenos Aires, Argentina, has 25 years of experience teaching English and Spanish. She works in public schools with teenage students of various ages and levels and owns a private institute for international students aged 6 to 18. Lety also teaches Spanish to Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) students and is a freelance translator specializing in literary, technical, and scientific texts. A former Interact member, she has traveled to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Brazil. Lety is participating in the RITE program because she believes education is a powerful tool for transformation and that language connects cultures and people. She values cultural exchange through everyday life experiences and believes RITE will help break cultural barriers, enrich her understanding of other educational systems, and allow her to share these experiences with her students in meaningful and lasting ways.

Mauro Coletti, San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been a Secondary Education Teacher since 2022. He has taught History and Social Sciences, including Civics and Government, and courses focused on university preparation and politics. Mauro is especially interested in Project-Based Learning to encourage active student engagement. He also tutors international students in Spanish and English for Cambridge examinations and works remotely in various educational roles. Mauro has traveled to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Japan, and the United States. Mauro is participating in the RITE program because he believes educational exchanges provide valuable knowledge and strategies that strengthen teaching practice. He hopes to return with practical tools to apply in his classroom, adapt project-based methodologies to new contexts, strengthen digital safety practices, and build meaningful, lasting connections while exploring future studies in educational systems.