Madison Eastmond, Murray Pioneer
After more than two decades of teaching a second language to Renmark High School students, Jasmine Sotiroulis has received national recognition for her contributions in Riverland classrooms and the broader South Australian teaching community.
Celebrating a 24-year career of teaching French, Spanish, and Greek, along with her role as president of the South Australian French Teacher’s Association (SAFTA), Ms Sotiroulis received the World Education Forum Award for Outstanding Contribution to Intercultural and Global Understandings, and the Modern Language Teachers Association of SA Languages Community Empowerment Award, at the Educators SA Awards last October, before also receiving the National French Teacher Award of Excellence from French Ambassador, Pierre André Imbert, at the National French Teachers’ Conference in November.
“You just don’t expect these things,” Ms Sotiroulis said.
“Teachers don’t come into education to see how many prizes you can win, it’s about helping kids achieve and helping them reach their full potential.
“Even now I am struggling to process it.
“Being from a rural town, it just feels unbelievable to be recognised this way — it’s just such an honour.”
As a language education provider at Renmark High School, Ms Sotiroulis has used her career as a teacher to build the only secondary three-language program in regional South Australia, holding a legacy of student exchange, travel, and Riverland alumni working and living internationally
“My career so far has been so fulfilling and so much fun,” she said.
“The greatest joy has been following my students from fresh-faced mono-lingual students, and seeing the amazing things that they have done, and continue to do by changing the world in their own spaces with language.
“That makes me happiest and it is a perpetual highlight.”
Though Ms Sotiroulis has never been a native speaker of Greek, Spanish, or French, the born and raised Riverlander said she had always had an affinity for language.
“My Grandmother spoke Welsh and my father is a talented linguist in German, Italian, and Latin,” she said.
“I remember just being fascinated by the different and unfamiliar sounds, and I just wanted to understand what they were saying to me.”
Studying Greek in her early schooling before completing a double major in French and Spanish with a minor in Russian, at the University of Adelaide, Ms Sotiroulis soon found her passion for language also extended to education when she completed a teaching degree “as a backup”.
“After university, I worked in France for a year as an assistant English teacher and that was completely transformative for me,” she said.
“On my return to Renmark, I continued doing relief teaching until a position came up at Renmark High School to develop the language program.
“Here I still am today, and I feel I can say it is well and truly developed.”
However, while the language program at Renmark High School has been commended as exceptional, Ms Sotiroulis is still working to providing new experiences for her students.
Now in her fourth year as president, Ms Sotiroulis has recently worked with the Department of Education to enable government school students to travel to France, which had previously been banned due to the country’s 2016 amber alert status.
“I have recently made connections with the Spanish Embassy and we have the biggest Spanish Beginners’ class in the state, so we will be undertaking a Study Tour to Spain this year,” Ms Sotiroulis said.
“However, now that students can travel to France again, we are looking to return to France in 2026.
“I am just so excited to keep providing rural students with international experiences.
“If you don’t have someone’s language you can’t be part of their world — that connectivity has been what really drives my passion to pass on these beautiful skills and cultures.”
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This article appeared in the Murray Pioneer, 15 January 2025.