By KHT Staff. Images via The Global Filipino Magazine.
KAOHSIUNG — A Filipino educator who arrived in Chiayi City in 1999 as the first teacher from the Philippines hired by her school now leads its academic programs while supporting teachers and Filipino community activities across southern Taiwan.
Ana Liza Desuasido Garcia was 28 when she joined Shao Ding Dang and ELITE Language Institute after placing first in a recruitment examination for educators interested in working at a Montessori school in Taiwan.
Her career was recently documented in a profile by The Global Filipino Magazine, which interviewed Garcia about her work and experience living abroad.
Before coming to Taiwan, Garcia had taught second-grade mathematics, music, arts, physical education, and health at Canossa School in Santa Rosa, Laguna. She also received training in the American Montessori system while working at a school in San Pedro.
Garcia told the magazine that her early years in Chiayi were difficult. She faced homesickness, language barriers, and the pressure of being the school’s first Filipino educator. She considered leaving but said support from her employer helped her gain acceptance in the surrounding community.
She also saw the job as an opportunity to challenge assumptions that Filipinos working overseas were limited to caregiving, factory work, or domestic employment.
Garcia remained in Taiwan until 2008, adding training in the Japanese Montessori system during her first period at the school. She then returned to the Philippines, where she continued teaching and completed additional professional training.
ELITE invited her back to Taiwan in March 2018. She now serves as head of the foreign teaching staff and head of academic affairs.
Her responsibilities include supervising teachers, developing curricula and teaching materials, coordinating preschool, music, arts and physical education programs, mentoring newer educators and communicating with parents. She has also continued teaching students directly.
Garcia said working with young children remains central to her career because “their curiosity and honesty remind me why I became a teacher.”
Her role has also expanded beyond the classroom. Garcia serves as president of the KAPITAN Chiayi Mother Chapter and as a coordinator for Filipino teachers in southern Taiwan. She also helps organize activities associated with the Manila Economic and Cultural Office’s Kaohsiung Extension Office.
In 2019, she helped establish Sound_Range, a community band intended to bring Filipino residents together through music. She has also participated in talent shows, cultural programs, and events supporting overseas Filipino workers.
Garcia said her years abroad taught her the importance of approaching professional and personal disputes calmly, communicating respectfully and concentrating on solutions rather than blame. She now applies those lessons while mentoring teachers who face some of the same uncertainties she experienced after arriving in Taiwan.
After nearly 18 years of teaching in Taiwan across two separate periods, Garcia said she hopes eventually to continue mentoring educators and assisting Filipino workers facing difficulties overseas.
