From 'tender to teacher

This time last year, Sarah Waxman was prepping for her senior season as goalie for the Penn women's lacrosse team - one that would culminate with a trip to the national championship game.

Now, she finds herself 2,000 miles from Franklin Field, in Oaxaca, Mexico, teaching English and history to Mexican high-schoolers.

"I love traveling; I love having new experiences," Waxman wrote in an e-mail. "[Mexico] is a country that is so closely related to the U.S., but few people go past the Cancun or Acapulco beaches to learn about who really lives here, what kind of culture they have and their struggles internally and with the U.S."

Penn's lacrosse season ended May 25 last year with a loss in the national championship to Northwestern. Following the season, Waxman was honored as an Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) first-team All-American, and the IWLCA National Goalkeeper of the Year - her second straight year capturing both honors.

After a few weeks of relaxation, Waxman hit the road, traveling to Switzerland with her family, visiting her brother in Dubai and seeing her friend and former Penn golfer Meg Bender in Thailand.

Now in Oaxaca, she is renting a room from a Mexican family and teaching English to high-school freshmen and seniors, as well as Mexican history to freshman.

"I have 30 students in each of my classes, which is impossible for learning a language," she said. "The seniors are also incredibly wild and have little interest in learning English. This class is straight-up hard to handle."

While the more-manageable freshmen may be eager to learn or naturally skilled at languages, Waxman finds it strange to teach Mexican children the history of their own country when she is not a native.

"The students are only at a basic-to-intermediate level of English," she said. "Also, the relationship between our countries is so complex, fragile and impacts Mexico so much; it is weird that they want the Mexicans to be learning from an American."

As an example of the cultural difference in historical perspectives, she points out that Mexicans refer to the Mexican-American War as the American Invasion War.

Waxman is only now learning Spanish, so daily life is in itself an interesting experience. Everyday activities become difficult tasks when confronted with both a language and a culture barrier. It doesn't help that she is the only foreign teacher at her school.

Without a doubt, the former All-American misses lacrosse, especially since it consumed so much of her time at Penn. Now though, her focus is on the rest of her life. And for the time being, that means teaching and tutoring in Oaxaca, an experience as thrilling as an Ivy Championship or a trip to the Final Four.

"My goal in life right now is to have experiences and to put myself in places that make me have crazy experiences," she said. "No doubt, I had an amazing one playing lacrosse at Penn; I learned more playing than I did in all my classes put together. However, I am happy I am giving my body a rest and doing something completely different."

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