Courtesy of Marshall University Photos

Zelideth Rivas

Sometimes in life, it’s best to take a moment and sit down with a cup of tea, and Zelideth Rivas just so happens to be a licensed tea instructor.

Rivas was born in Puerto Rico, moved to the United States when she was two years old and eventually ended up living in New Jersey. Whenever she wasn’t at school during the spring and fall, she returned to Puerto Rico. 

Early on in her life, Rivas found a love for language. Rivas said it almost became an obsession; from such an early age, this appreciation for language and yearning to learn took root.

“When I was in high school, I really loved languages,” Rivas said. “I became obsessed when I was in middle school with French, and I wanted to learn more French and languages.”

Rivas’ father was the director of Intake Center, a center in New Jersey which gave assessment tests for students from non-English speaking countries to properly place them in their education. This center became a haven for Rivas, especially since she had an aunt who spoke French and was always there.

“The Intake Center basically had teachers from all New Jersey public schools that could speak all the languages, basically, that were frequently found in Jersey City,” Rivas said. “So, I started going after school instead of hanging out at home in the apartment. I would hang out at the Intake Center with my dad and study French.” 

Rivas said a friend of hers at the time in her freshman year of high school sparked the idea of Rivas applying for an exchange program; little did she know it would change her life.

“‘No, I’m not leaving, like, what do you mean,’ and she ended up convincing me to apply,” Rivas said. “The way that they do things is that you can put down your country preferences, but it’s really applying to the whole world when you put one of those applications in.”

Rivas didn’t end up going to France to continue her study of French; the universe took her in a different direction.

“And so, before my rotary club reached out to me, and my rotary district reached out to me, I got a phone call from the flight agent – from the travel agent, and I was like, ‘Wait what?’” Rivas said. “They were like, ‘Well, we’re sending you to Japan. I just need to confirm these flight tickets,’ and I was like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, what?’”

Rivas, at the time, didn’t know any Japanese. Her rotary club mentioned they could’ve switched the country for her to Brazil or Argentina, but she already knew Spanish. 

“If the whole thing is like learning a new culture, Brazil and Argentina don’t really work for me,” Rivas said. 

Her mother then asked her, “So Japan, are we saying yes to Japan?”

And she said yes. 

Rivas, even after her year in Japan, continued her education. Her high school offered her a satellite course for Japanese, and this interest in the language continued into her educational career. She went to Wellesley College and tried to pursue a degree in international relations.

“I took my major declaration form to my class dean, and I was like, ‘Hey, I want to major in international relations,’” Rivas said. “She thankfully knew me very well and looked at me and said, in her wisdom, ‘Your eyes don’t shine when you talk about international relations. Your eyes only shine when you talk about Japan or Japanese studies. Change this form, and then we’ll talk.’”

Rivas found herself back in Japan for another year abroad, and this was the year she knew she wanted to teach. She wanted to be somewhere with students, and other Marshall faculty say she does an excellent job.

Professor Shannon Butler said, “Dr. Rivas is known for her industriousness, collegiality and dedication to improve the education of her students and the success of the university.”

This dedication to her students comes from her sparkle: The sparkle she’s had since she was 15 years old.

“I’ve been advocating for international education since I was… 15 years old,” Rivas said. “It’s all about how we can still sparkle and still have our eyes shine, and for me, it’s like I get to hear these stories from international students about their lives, and I get to get them a platform to get an education. In many ways, I still feel like I’m that little immigrant child, even though there is no immigration from Puerto Rico, but I still feel like there’s that child who is just wanting to give a people a platform to be themselves.”

Rivas has worked at Marshall as an educator for the Japanese program as well as acting as an administrative assistant to those who are currently studying abroad. Rivas said she landed at Marshall searching for a job outside of college, and the university has been nothing but supportive. The university even provided her with all the equipment to properly educate them about the art of tea and the intimacy tea has.

“If your loved one says, ‘Do you want to sit down with a cup of tea and chat,’ the answer is, ‘Yes,’ no matter what language, right? No matter what country,” Rivas said. “There’s not many things in our lives that bring us intimacy and comfort at the same time, and tea is one of them.”

Just like the answer to having a cup of tea is yes, Rivas said growth happens with a simple yes.

“And when we say no, we start should-ing on ourselves, right?” Rivas asked. “So, we say, ‘I should have done this, I should have done that,’ and we live our lives with regret. But, if we actually start opening to saying yes to things that scare us, that’s where we start seeing growth.”

Soleil Woolard can be contacted at [email protected].