From architect to teacher: Adriana’s career switch in Brainport
Moving to another country can change more than where you live. It can also make you reconsider your career. For Adriana Hernandez Palomino, moving to the Netherlands eventually opened up an unexpected new direction: from architecture to teaching.
Her story shows how the knowledge and experience you bring to the Brainport region can become the starting point for meaningful work in a new field.
From architecture to education
Adriana grew up bilingually in Washington D.C. and studied architecture. She moved to the Netherlands five years ago for her studies and later started looking for work as an architect.
Finding a job proved difficult, partly because of her level of Dutch. At the same time, Adriana began to question whether architecture was really the path she wanted to follow.
Teaching had interested her from an early age. Through the Talent100 programme of the Expat Spouses Initiative, she discovered Internationals voor de klas, which helps international professionals with a STEM background explore opportunities in Dutch education. Her reaction was immediate: “I knew right away: this is it!”
Bringing professional experience into the classroom
Through Internationals voor de klas, Adriana is gaining practical teaching experience at SintLucas, a vocational school for creative and technical education in Eindhoven. She is learning about didactics and the Dutch education system while also improving her Dutch.
Her previous career is not something she has left behind. Her knowledge of architecture gives her something valuable to bring into the classroom. She can connect subjects to professional practice and share a different international perspective with students.
The experience has also helped Adriana become more confident about what she wants next. She is preparing to give students a masterclass in architecture, combining her previous expertise with her developing skills as a teacher.
“From working in the education system and teaching, I know: this is where I belong. This is where I see my future.”
Your experience can lead somewhere new
Adriana’s journey is one example of the opportunities international spouses and partners can explore in the Brainport region. Building a career in a new country can take time, especially when you are learning the language and getting to know a new professional environment. But your existing knowledge and experience can help you find a new direction.
Internationals voor de klas offers international professionals with a STEM background a route to explore teaching, gain classroom experience and potentially work towards a Dutch teaching qualification.
For Adriana, that route has helped turn an earlier interest into a possible new career.