For those not familiar with the field of teaching English as a second language, it may just seem like a lot of alphabet soup – ESL, ELL, ESOL, TESOL, MELL – but to Ryan Rumpf ’02, it’s a career he wouldn’t trade for anything.
It’s a career that took him to Vietnam for three years and most recently, to Jefferson City as the director of ELL (English Language Learner) Curriculum for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Rumpf earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish with a minor in German from Missouri Western and a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction/English as a Second Language from the University of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. His degrees took him to Lexington, Missouri; Arizona and Colorado before he was hired by Hickman Mills C-1 School District in Kansas City, Missouri as ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) teacher. That position, which earned him a Building Teacher of the Year and Mayor’s Shining Star of Education awards in 2009, and a promotion to ESOL program coordinator for the district, made him realize how much he loved the field.
After two “fantastic” study away trips as a Missouri Western student, he was bitten by the travel bug, and in 2013, he decided to visit an international teacher placement fair. There he was hired by the American International School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The majority of students at the school were not fluent in English, and Rumpf was hired to design and implement its first organized ELD (English Language Development) program for grades one through 10.
A favorite memory from Vietnam, which he calls “a lot of untouched paradise,” is when he would walk into a classroom and students would run up to him and enthusiastically explain a new concept or English skill they had learned. He originally committed to the school for two years, but signed on for a third when he felt his work wasn’t completed.
While overseas, he and his wife, Lucinda, visited all of Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Greece, Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Iceland. They were celebrating Christmas in Germany in 2015 when he accepted the job in Jefferson City.
Since he started at DESE last July, Rumpf has been supervising the migrant and English language learners across the state, and creating professional development opportunities for teachers, among others duties.
“It all revolves around improving the education of students with limited English proficiency,” he said.
And there are plenty of students to keep him busy. Currently, there are more than 29,000 students in Missouri with limited English proficiency, up from approximately 21,000 in 2011, Rumpf said. In St. Joseph, the current number is more than 600, which is more than double the number in 2011.
His job also requires visiting with teachers throughout the state, and this past fall, he came to campus and met with Dr. Adrienne Johnson, assistant professor of education who teaches several courses in Missouri Western’s TESOL (Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages) graduate program.
“The field is changing and evolving,” he says of the English language learning field. “It’s come a long way. It has a long way to go, but I’m glad to be a part of the conversation.”