About Talinta Teacher Pathways

Two teachers who have lived both sides of the J-1 exchange, and the company they built around it.

Our Story

TALINTA

The name came first.

Talinta joins two words. Talino is Tagalog — it means intelligence, brightness of mind. Talent is its English counterpart, the word American districts use when they describe what they’re short of.

Putting them together was deliberate. The teachers we work with aren’t potential waiting to be developed; they arrive with years of classroom experience, credentials, and command of their subject.

Talinta was founded by two educators who’ve lived both sides of this exchange — nearly 20 years combined experience, including years teaching in the Philippines and in America’s hardest-to-staff districts.

Cesar holds the Philippine flag outside Chevak School in rural Alaska, during his own exchange placement. — Cesar outside Chevak School, during his own exchange placement.

Cesar standing in the snow in Chevak, Alaska, during his first winter in the U.S. — Cesar’s first winter in the U.S. — Chevak, Alaska, the village where he taught.

Cesar and another J-1 teacher, arms raised, at the old village site of Chevak, Alaska, during a staff in-service. — Cesar and another J-1 teacher at the old village site of Chevak, during a staff in-service.

Erik, the other co-founder, brings the other half of that experience. He went to law school and still teaches today, and that legal grounding shapes the policies underneath Talinta — the contracts, the visa compliance, the fine print that decides whether a teacher’s pay and placement actually hold up the way a district promised.

We know what districts need, and what it costs a teacher to decide to teach abroad.

Erik during law school, standing in a mock courtroom in a charcoal suit and navy tie, with the U.S. and Arizona flags and the judge's bench behind him. — Erik in law school — the path that now shapes Talinta’s policies.

Meet the Founders

Erik

Teacher. Co-founder.

Five years teaching computer science, social studies, and GED in charter and Bureau of Indian Education–funded schools, and leadership of a Family and Child Education program.

Juris Doctor, University of Arizona. Master of Arts in Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University, in progress. Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science, Arizona State University.

His legal training shapes how we write our agreements: plain language, fully disclosed, nothing buried.

“We built Talinta on a simple model: fair and transparent for teachers, equitable access for schools.”

Cesar

Teacher. Co-founder.

Eight years teaching in the Philippines under DepEd, and six in U.S. classrooms — rural Alaska Native village schools, a large urban Alaska district, and a BIE-funded reservation school in Arizona.

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Master of Arts in English Language Teaching, Columban College. Bachelor of Secondary Education, Major in English, Gordon College.

He made this journey before he started guiding it.

“I’ve sat where the candidate sits. That’s the whole reason I do this differently.”