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pamela pattie

Pamela Pattie

Pamela Pattie taught English as a Second Language at AUC for several years —and in various countries. Now, she’s ensuring that future generations of women will have the same opportunity by leaving AUC a legacy gift to establish an endowed fellowship for female graduate students in Teaching English as a Second Language.
  1. Giving
  2. Legacy Gifts
  3. Pamela Pattie

A lifelong teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL), Pamela Pattie has lived through revolutions, evacuations, and countless adventures, all while shaping the lives of students across continents. She has taught ESL in Egypt, the U.S., Iran, France, Thailand, Indonesia, Oman, Lebanon, Syria, and Morocco.

Now retired in San Antonio, Texas, Pattie hopes her story will inspire others to give. She is leaving a legacy gift to AUC from her estate following her passing—a gift that will not only create an endowed fellowship for women pursuing graduate studies in teaching English as a second language at AUC but also open doors to future opportunities.

Pattie started teaching ESL at The American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1979 as part of a program funded by the United States Agency for International Development for Egyptian graduate students. After many teaching positions around the globe, she returned to AUC in 1998 for an additional five years. Although AUC was not her first teaching job, it remains her favorite. "Teaching at AUC was the best job I ever had. I loved my students and being in Cairo. Egyptians are amazing people—cheerful, generous, and kind.”

A Global Teaching Experience

Pattie's passion in traveling and exploring the world around the world began at an early age. As the daughter of an army officer, her childhood was marked by international experiences. “My early elementary school years were spent in the country. From our quarters on Fort Clayton, we could see the Panama Canal. I learned Spanish from our maid, and my mother and I would go to a Chinese market to shop for fruits and vegetables. When I was in seventh grade, we moved to Zweibrücken, Germany, and I learned German.” By the time her family settled in Texas, she had already developed a taste for the wider world.

At the University of Texas at Austin, she studied history and government; however, it was a course on Middle Eastern government taught by Professor Carl Leiden—who had just returned from Cairo—that sparked her fascination with the region.

After graduating, Pattie was determined to travel. She began teaching English to foreign military personnel at the Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, Texas, but promised herself that she would spend only one year in the United States. “My students came from all over the world, but the military students from the Middle East were my favorites. It was through them that I fell in love with the region,” she recalled. True to her word, she volunteered through the Presbyterian Church for a teaching position in the Middle East and was assigned to The American Girls School in Cairo. She then seized another opportunity to teach English, this time in Tehran, Iran.

Over the years, she continued to travel and teach in various countries, including France and Switzerland, before returning to the United States to teach once again at the Defense Language Institute. She later moved to Vienna, where she taught English, learned German, and embraced the local culture.

Pattie emphasizes how the gift of education is key in opening multiple doors worldwide. In 1977, she received a fellowship from the University of Illinois and the University of Tehran, allowing her to teach full-time at the University of Tehran while pursuing graduate classes to earn her Masters of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). “I have been exceedingly fortunate. I had a scholarship for my master’s degree that enabled me to teach English at the university level and work in several countries. Most positions in teaching English as a foreign language require a master’s degree, especially at foreign universities.”

Pattie's teaching journey was also filled with numerous adventures. While teaching in Iran, she stated: “I remained till the Revolution of 1978 — but stayed a bit too long: I had to be evacuated by the U.S. Air Force. That was quite an adventure.”

From Tehran to Cairo, then Bangkok, the United States, followed by Indonesia, Pattie still missed the Middle East, so she returned to the region to teach at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman for 12 years.

Following her five-year return to AUC in 1998, she then joined the Lebanese American University in Beirut for two years, after which she taught at the American Language Centre in Damascus, Syria. “That was quite a difficult year politically. I wasn’t ever able to get a work permit, and so I returned to Beirut, was trapped by an Israeli bombardment, and was taken by hovercraft from a beach to a U.S. Marine ship—my second evacuation!”

Her teaching journey then took her to Rabat, Morocco, where she worked with AMIDEAST for two years.

A Legacy of Learning and Giving

Just as Pattie's education transformed her life, she is now paying it forward to future generations of women. “Knowing how expensive education is, I want to make it possible for students to continue studying and support them as they learn the profession that has given me such a wonderful life. I hope that my story will inspire others to do so as well.”