Teach in the USA, Then Lead: A Principal's 13-Year International Journey

You chose teaching for a reason. Maybe you started explaining fractions to a cousin at the kitchen table. Maybe a teacher once saw something in you that nobody else did. At some point the question changes. It stops being can I teach? and becomes where could teaching take me?

For Susana Garcia Fernandez, the answer was a small town in Colorado, then a ski town in the mountains, then the principal's office of an elementary school in California. She is now Principal of McKinley Elementary School in Burlingame. She arrived in the United States on a one-year exchange. She never left.

Her story is useful for any teacher thinking about how to teach in the USA. It is also useful for any teacher who has never been told what the road ahead looks like. It is not a fairy tale. It includes lost luggage, expensive daycare, unfamiliar grade levels and a run of visa paperwork. It also includes a clear set of habits that took her from newcomer to school leader. This article walks through those habits, the visa route she followed, and what she now looks for when she hires teachers from abroad.

In a conversation with Suraasa Founder and CEO Rishabh Khanna, Susana tells the full story in her own words. Watch it to hear how a single year turned into a career and what she wishes every international teacher knew before landing:

From Spain to the United States: An Unplanned 13-Year Journey

Susana did not take a straight line into teaching. She started tutoring and teaching informally at 18. Then she tried other paths: architecture, geology, graphic design. Each one taught her something. None of them held her the way teaching did.

So she came back. She earned her teaching degree in Spain and then went looking for something wider. She wanted cultural exchange. She wanted to see how education worked in an English-speaking system. She joined an exchange teaching program that placed teachers from Spain in schools abroad, and she landed in Colorado.

The plan was simple. One year. Learn, teach, go home with a story.

"I came for one year and stayed for 13. So it happens."
Susana Garcia Fernandez

That line will sound familiar to many teachers who have moved abroad. You go for an experience. You stay because the work changes you.

There is a lesson in the detours too. Architecture, geology and graphic design might look like years spent away from teaching. They were not. A teacher who has studied design thinks visually about how a lesson unfolds. A teacher who has studied geology knows how to make a rock interesting to a nine-year-old. The detours were part of the preparation, even if nobody called it that at the time.

If your own path into teaching has been winding, you are not behind. You have range. The US system, as Susana discovered, tends to reward exactly that.

Understanding the Pull of the US Educational System

So why did a one-year plan become a thirteen-year career? Susana is direct about it. It was not the weather or the salary. It was the way schools treated children.

She describes a system where everything orients around the student: how they are taught, how they are treated, how their individual needs shape the day. Coming from a more traditional model, she found the emphasis on respect and holistic development striking. She had not experienced that level of student-centred focus before, and it made her want to stay and get better at it.

This matters for anyone planning to teach in the USA, because it tells you what you will be measured against. In most US elementary classrooms, a teacher standing at the front and lecturing for forty minutes is the exception. You are far more likely to see:

• Small-group instruction, where the teacher works with five or six students while others rotate through stations.
• Differentiation, with the same learning goal reached through different tasks depending on where each child is.
• Social-emotional learning built into the routine, from morning check-ins to explicit lessons on managing frustration.
• Inclusion, with students who have learning plans working in the same room, supported rather than separated.

None of this is exotic. Strong teachers everywhere do versions of it. But in the US it is the expectation, and school leaders will look for it in your interviews and your lessons. If you want to sharpen these skills before you go, our guide to classroom management strategies that actually work is a practical place to start.

The US public school system is also enormous and varied. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public schools serve tens of millions of students across thousands of districts, each with its own hiring practices, salary scales and priorities. That variety is why one teacher's experience in Colorado can look very different from another's in Texas or New York. It is also why flexibility, which comes up again and again in Susana's story, counts for so much.

Surviving Day One: The Logistical Realities of International Relocation

Here is the part most recruitment brochures leave out.

Susana arrived in Denver with two young children. Her luggage got lost. She had no car and no easy way to get around. Daycare for two small children was expensive. And for the first months, the family lived on a single salary.

Read that list again. That is not a teacher who had it easy. That is a teacher who had to be resilient before she ever stood in front of a class.

She leaned on community support to get through. Colleagues, neighbours and people from the program helped fill the gaps. This is worth naming plainly: nobody relocates across an ocean alone and succeeds through willpower alone. You need people.

If you are planning your own move, use her experience as a planning checklist:

One point many teachers miss: US school salaries are often paid on a monthly cycle, and your first paycheck may arrive weeks after you start. Rental deposits, a car, furniture and school supplies all hit at once. Plan for that gap.

Comparing destinations? Our breakdown of the best countries to teach abroad, with salary and cost of living compared, can help you weigh the US against other options honestly.

Navigating Visa Pathways: J-1 Exchange to H-1B and Permanent Residency

Susana's visa journey followed a path that many international teachers take. She started on a J-1 exchange visitor visa, moved to an H-1B work visa, and eventually received a green card. Each step depended on something specific. Understanding that sequence will save you a great deal of confusion.

Step one: the J-1 exchange visitor visa

The US Department of State runs a J-1 Teacher exchange program for qualified teachers from other countries. It is designed as cultural exchange: you teach in a US school and share your culture with students, and you are expected to bring that experience home. Participants work through designated sponsor organisations, and the program has its own eligibility requirements around qualifications and experience.

One detail matters a great deal. Some J-1 participants are subject to a two-year home-country physical presence requirement before they can change to certain other visa types or apply for permanent residency. Whether it applies depends on your circumstances. Check your own status with your sponsor and the State Department's exchange visitor guidance before you make long-term plans.

Step two: the H-1B specialty occupation visa

The H-1B visa lets US employers hire foreign professionals in specialty occupations, and teaching can qualify. The key word is employer. You cannot apply for an H-1B on your own. A school or district has to sponsor you.

That is exactly what happened for Susana. Her school leaders in Denver saw her dedication and her impact in the classroom, and they stepped forward to sponsor her H-1B.

Step three: the green card

Later, while teaching in Telluride, her school leadership sponsored her for permanent residency. A green card removes the dependence on a single employer and gives you far more freedom to move between schools and roles.

The thread connecting every step

Notice the pattern. Every transition after the first depended on a school leader deciding she was worth the paperwork. Sponsorship costs a school time, money and effort. Leaders take that on for teachers who have made themselves hard to lose.

That is the practical takeaway. Your classroom practice is your visa strategy. The quality of your teaching, your reliability and your relationships with colleagues are what lead an administrator to say: we want to keep this person.

Visa rules change. Treat this section as a map of how the route works, not legal advice, and confirm every detail with official sources and a qualified immigration professional.

Expanding Pedagogical Range: Teaching from Kindergarten to High School

Most teachers find a grade level they like and stay there. Susana did the opposite, and it became one of the most important parts of her development.

She started with 3rd and 4th grade in a dual immersion program, where students learn in two languages. Then she moved down to kindergarten. Her reason was deliberate: she wanted to understand early foundational learning, the stage where reading, number sense and classroom habits first take shape.

Later, in Telluride, she went much further. She taught high school mathematics, including algebra, and culinary arts.

Kindergarten to high school algebra to cooking. That is a range most teachers never touch in a whole career.

"Only through challenge, you grow."
Susana Garcia Fernandez

Here is why that range paid off. When you have taught five-year-olds learning to count and teenagers solving equations, you see the whole progression. You understand why a high school student struggles with algebra, because you have seen where number sense forms or fails to form years earlier. You understand what a kindergartner needs, because you know where they are heading.

For a future school leader, that is invaluable. A principal has to support teachers across every grade. Susana can sit in a kindergarten classroom and a 5th grade classroom on the same morning and understand both.

What does this mean for you? If a school offers you a grade or subject outside your comfort zone, think before you say no. It may be the assignment that teaches you the most. A strong foundation in planning helps you adapt to any grade. Frameworks like backward design lesson planning work whether you are teaching letter sounds or linear equations, because they start with what students need to learn and work back from there.

Stepping into Leadership: Transitioning from Classroom Teacher to Administrator

Moving from the classroom to the principal's office is a big shift. As a teacher, your impact runs through the students in your room. As an administrator, it runs through the adults in the building. You hire. You mentor. You set the culture. You make the calls nobody else wants to make.

Susana's path into leadership did not come from a single promotion. It built up from everything before it. Her range across grade levels gave her instructional credibility. Her experience as an outsider who had to learn a new system gave her empathy for new teachers. Her track record gave administrators reason to trust her.

For international teachers, the leadership question carries an extra layer. You may wonder whether a teacher trained in another country can lead a US school. Susana's career is a clear answer. She did not hide her background. She built on it.

If leadership is your goal, think of your classroom years as preparation, not waiting time. Every unfamiliar assignment, every new colleague you support, every problem you help solve outside your own room builds the case. Our roadmap from local classrooms to global educator and leadership roles lays out what that progression can look like step by step.

And remember that leadership in schools usually requires formal preparation too. In the US, administrator roles typically need specific state credentials, and requirements vary by state. Research them early, the same way you would research teaching credential reciprocity.

Seizing the Initiative: Building Visibility Through District Programs

Talent alone does not make you visible. Plenty of excellent teachers spend years doing outstanding work behind a closed classroom door, and nobody beyond their students notices.

Susana found a different way. During COVID-19, when schools were scrambling, she volunteered to design and direct a hands-on STEAM summer school program. Not for one school. For four.

Think about what that required. Designing curriculum. Coordinating staff across multiple sites. Solving logistics in a period when nothing worked normally. Keeping children engaged in hands-on learning after months of disruption.

It was hard. It was also exactly the kind of work a principal does. By leading it, Susana showed district leaders, in practice rather than in an interview, that she was ready for the principalship.

Here is the lesson in plain terms. Leadership roles go to people who have already been seen leading. Volunteering for a difficult district initiative gives you that chance before anyone gives you the title.

What could that look like for you?

• Summer or enrichment programs, which districts often struggle to staff and lead.
• New curriculum pilots, where someone has to test materials and report back honestly.
• Mentoring newer teachers, especially other international arrivals who are where you were a year ago.
• Committees on assessment, wellbeing or family engagement, where you work alongside administrators.

The best opportunities often appear in a crisis, when the usual systems break down and schools need someone to step forward. Susana stepped forward. That decision shaped what came next.

Treat these opportunities as part of your professional growth plan, not extras. Our guide to building an annual CPD plan shows how to map them across a year so growth happens on purpose.

The Cultural Dividend: What International Educators Bring to US Classrooms

International teachers sometimes walk into a US school feeling they have to make up for being different. Susana sees it the other way round.

"Having different teachers from all over the world in a school, it brings the world to the school."
Susana Garcia Fernandez

She describes two kinds of value. The first is authentic cultural perspective. When a teacher shares traditions, stories and celebrations from their own life, students meet another culture through a real person, not a textbook page. That builds broad-mindedness and cultural empathy in a way no worksheet can.

The second is less obvious. International teachers often bring different methods for solving problems. A teacher trained in Spain or India may teach long division, essay structure or scientific reasoning in a way US students have never seen. Showing students that there is more than one valid path to an answer is powerful teaching in itself.

This is why Susana's background was never a weakness. In a dual immersion classroom, her native Spanish was the core of the job. In every classroom, her outsider's eye let her see what local teachers took for granted.

So when you prepare for interviews, do not downplay where you come from. Be ready to explain concretely what you bring: a language, a teaching method, a perspective on how children learn. Then pair it with clear evidence that you understand and respect how US classrooms work. Both halves matter.

If you are weighing how credentials from home are viewed abroad, our explainer on the role of a teaching license internationally covers how recognition and reciprocity tend to work.

Inside the Administrator's Mind: Hiring Criteria for Global Teachers

Susana now sits on the other side of the interview table. She hires teachers, including teachers from abroad, and she mentors them once they arrive. That makes her advice especially valuable, because it comes from the person making the decision.

From the conversation, three qualities stand out in what she looks for.

1. Flexibility

US schools change. A new curriculum, a shift in enrolment, a sudden need in another grade. Susana's own career shows why flexibility matters: kindergarten one year, algebra another. Administrators want teachers who will adapt rather than resist.

2. Emotional empathy and social-emotional awareness

Given how student-centred US schools are, it follows that leaders look for teachers who connect with children as people. Can you notice when a student is struggling for reasons that have nothing to do with the lesson? Can you build a classroom where children feel safe enough to take risks?

3. A high learning quotient

This is the one Susana returns to most, and it deserves its own section below. In short: she wants teachers who know they still have things to learn.

"What you want is somebody that doesn't know everything, because that's impossible, that doesn't have all the answers, but is willing to say, 'Okay, I don't know that. But let me know,' or 'Who can I ask for help?'"
Susana Garcia Fernandez

What this means for your interview

Based on her priorities, here is how to prepare:

• Talk about students, not just content. Describe how you notice and respond to individual needs.
• Show small-group thinking. Explain how you would run differentiated groups rather than relying on whole-class lecturing.
• Name a gap honestly. If you have not used a particular US assessment or curriculum, say so, and explain how you would learn it.
• Give an example of adapting. A time you taught an unfamiliar grade, changed approach mid-lesson, or learned from a colleague.
• Bring your background forward. Explain what your training and culture add to a school community.

Notice what is missing from that list: claiming you already know everything. A candidate who says their past excellence will transfer directly, with no adjustment, is sending exactly the wrong signal.

The Learning Quotient: Why Adaptability Outweighs Perfection in Education

The phrase learning quotient captures something every experienced teacher knows but few interviews test directly. It is your willingness to learn. Your openness to feedback. Your ability to say "I don't know yet" without feeling diminished by it.

Why does Susana weigh it so heavily? Because the move to a new country resets a lot. A teacher who was excellent in Madrid or Mumbai arrives in Colorado to find different standards, different assessment systems, different expectations about behaviour, different relationships with families. Some of what made them excellent transfers directly. Some does not.

The teachers who struggle tend to assume it all transfers. The teachers who thrive treat the first year as a learning year. They ask questions. They observe colleagues. They take feedback without getting defensive. Within a year or two, they combine their original strengths with a real understanding of the new system. That combination is powerful.

Susana's own story is the clearest example. She did not arrive knowing how to teach kindergarten in an American school, or algebra, or culinary arts. She learned each one. She did not arrive knowing how to lead four schools through a summer program in a pandemic. She learned that too.

How do you build your learning quotient deliberately?

1. Ask for observation. Invite a colleague or coach into your room and ask for one specific piece of feedback.
2. Observe others. Spend time in classrooms at grade levels you do not teach.
3. Keep a gaps list. Write down what you do not yet understand about your new system, and work through it.
4. Find a mentor. Formal or informal, a trusted colleague who will tell you the truth.
5. Keep learning formally. Structured professional development keeps your practice current wherever you teach. Our guide to the role of continuing education for teachers explains why it matters across a career.

This connects to something bigger. The best teachers model for students the exact habit Susana describes: not knowing, then finding out. A teacher who admits a gap and closes it shows children how learning actually works.

Your Next Step

Maybe you are reading this from a staffroom in Delhi, Dubai or Madrid, wondering if a career like Susana's is realistic. It is worth saying clearly: her path was not luck. It was a series of choices. She took the exchange. She stayed when the work moved her. She said yes to unfamiliar grades. She earned the trust that led to sponsorship. She volunteered when it was hard. She stayed humble enough to keep learning.

You can make those choices too. Start where you are. Strengthen your classroom practice. Research visa routes and credential requirements early. Save for the first few months. Build relationships with people who will vouch for you. And when a challenge appears, consider stepping toward it.

If you are an Indian teacher mapping out the options, our guide to international teaching careers for Indian teachers covers destinations, qualifications and planning in one place. At Suraasa, we build our programmes, including the Professional Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning (PgCTL), around the same belief that runs through Susana's story: teachers grow when someone walks beside them, not just at the start, but all the way.

Susana ended her conversation with a line that every teacher deserves to hear: if you think you can change the world, or want to, become a teacher. She did. And she is still doing it, now for a whole school.

For the Love of Teaching.