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TESOL Newsletter, 2018 Fall
Spotlights
Student Spotlight: Melissa Krut
"Teachers and students often have goals, but the whole scheme is most successful when there's a shared understanding."
Alumni Spotlight: Silvia Hildesheim
"I think it is crucial we advocate for ourselves as professionals and push for the resources, time, or pay that we need to be successful and for our students and programs to be successful."
Recent TESOL Graduates
Congratulations to our Recent TESOL Graduates!
MA TESOL
- Nejoud Almayman
- Kinza Cooper
- Allison Crolla
- Jessie Ebersole
- Yulia Khoruzhaya
- Jiayuan Ling
- Elizabeth Quillin
- Jorge Rivera
TESOL Graduate Certificate
- Ian Bonanno
- Katie Pettet
Read more about our Spring 2018 graduates
Allison Crolla
MA TESOL
Shortly after graduation, Allison Crolla has accepted two adjunct faculty positions at ĢƵ'S English Language and Training Academy (ELTA) and Community College of Baltimore County's (CCBC) Academic ESOL program. She began teaching in the summer at ELTA with a content-based course called American TV and Culture Studies. In the fall, Allison will continue teaching ELLs in an Advanced Academic Writing course at CCBC and another content-based course at ELTA. She plans to remain in the DC area for some time and would like to welcome the new TESOLers to the program!
Jessica Ebersole
MA TESOL
Jessica Ebersole was an independent contractor for BlueCanoe Learning during Summer 2017. In Summer 2017-Winter2018, she was an adjunct instructor at ELTA. She currently works full time at Washington English Center as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction.
Yulia Khoruzhaya
MA TESOL
Yulia Khoruzhaya was admitted to the PhD Program in Applied Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University. She is excited to start the program in the fall of 2018. Her research interests include the role of metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals and translanguaging practices. She will also teach an academic English course at Penn State’s intensive English program.
Jiayuan Ling
MA TESOL
Jiayuan Ling went back to China after summer. Now, she is working in an English learning institution and teaching reading and vocabulary class to high school students. She is considering to apply for a position in a middle school, so she is also preparing herself to be familiar with the textbooks and overall curriculum for middle schools these days.
Katie Pettet
TESOL Certificate
Katie Pettet finished the TESOL certificate in August 2018, just in time for the arrival of her first child due in September! Katie and her husband, Nick, will welcome their baby any day now, after which Katie will be on maternity leave for the rest of the year. In January 2019, Katie will return to her day job as an advisor at ĢƵ’s International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) office and use the new skills she gained from the TESOL certificate in her work with international students. Katie hopes to tutor ESL students in the future or teach ESL to adults part-time.
Welcome the new TESOL Students!
Debora Amidani MA TESOL Student
Debora Amidani is from Brazil and she has been an English teacher for 13 years now. In the beginning of her career, she took the CELTA course in Perth, Western Australia. This fall she moved to DC to start her MA in TESOL at ĢƵ and she is also working as a Graduate Assistant for the TESOL Program. Her ultimate goal is becoming a university teacher back home.
Liju Feng MA TESOL Student
Liju Feng is from China and was born in Qingdao, which is a beautiful coastal city. She loves languages. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chinese language and literature and then decided to study TESOL at ĢƵ to learn more about English. She loves food and traveling. She is looking forward to exploring more cities in the United States with friends.
Tyler Hill MA TESOL Student
Tyler Hill is pursuing a master’s in TESOL after spending the last three and a half years teaching in Southeast Asia. After completing a TESOL certification course in Phnom Penh Cambodia, he moved to Thailand where he gained the majority of his teaching experience. He is currently teaching in the DC area while studying at ĢƵ, and hopes to live abroad again after graduation.
Meng Li MA TESOL Student
Meng Li holds a BA in English Education from Harbin Normal University in China. In addition, she has learning experiences in UCLA andCalifornia State University as an exchange student. In China, she has had extensive experience teaching IELTS in EFL settings. She also used to be a reading tutor at Centronia in DC.She can fluently speak Mandarin, English and French. Linguistics and language teaching are always her favorite topics.
Anqi Sun MA TESOL Student
Anqi Sun grew up in Harbin, a city in the northeast of China. This is her second year in America. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Ocean University. She was a teaching assistant for American English teachers in an English teaching training program in China. She thinks it is exciting to join the TESOL program here at ĢƵ.
Yixuan Wang MA TESOL Student
Yixuan Wang is from China. She graduated from Guangdong University of Education in China majoring in English Education. She is interested in teaching kids. She had her half-year internship in a public middle school in China and worked in an English training center for one year. That teaching experience inspired her to be a professional English teacher in the future. Therefore, she chose the TESOL program at ĢƵ and hopes that she can successfully graduate.
Sidebar submissions
Find out what our students miss most about their home countries or home towns:
Ice Lanterns (Ice and Snow Festival)
I am from the “Ice City” Harbin, a northeastern city in China, which is the capital of Heilongjiang Province and also regarded as one of the coldest cities in my country: it often snows in the winter, and the snow and ice turn Harbin into a fairy tale world because it is all white and shiny at that time. And people there even celebrate Ice and Snow Festival every year. The thing I miss the most is ice lanterns. People put colorful lanterns inside the ice, and make them into different shapes. These ice lanterns are extremely beautiful and amazing! All the streets of Harbin are decorated with ice lanterns and snow statues in winter, and Harbin turns into a magical world then.
Meng Li
Milk tea
I come from China and the thing I miss the most is milk tea, which is the most popular beverage of the young generation there. We have various flavors of milk tea, and it is different in diverse areas because of local food diversity. For example, in my hometown, we have fermented glutinous rice milk tea, which is so sweet that may cause an addiction. Fortunately, there is astore named Kung Fu Tea in Georgetown that serves milk tea. Although it is hard to compare with what I miss in my country, I am quite grateful to find the taste of home abroad.
Yixuan Wang
Pão Francês
Going to Brazil over the summer made me realize how much I miss having freshly baked bread rolls during breakfast. In Brazil, we call these rolls pão francês. Picture it: a local bakery that makes you get in just because it smells amazing! You order one Brazilian roll and they bring it to you when it is still warm. You put butter on the bread and it instantly melts from the heat. This is how all bakeries in Brazil are like every morning. The crunchiness you find in a Brazilian bread roll is unlike any other kind of bread I have eaten here.
Mariana Grassi
Tang Hulus
I am from the northeast part of China, which is the coldest part. I have been in the US for a year and what I miss the most is a traditional food from my hometown called “Tang Hulu”. The original recipe is made with hawthorn, a Chinese fruit. It is easy to make Tang Hulu: make the syrup cover the hawthorn in the skewer. Nowadays, people use any fruit they want to make Tang Hulu. The reason why I miss it is that it is the taste of my hometown. Besides, the sweetness from the syrup and the sourness from the hawthorn merge together to make an amazing taste! I don't think that I can buy or make it in the US, because it seems like American people don't eat hawthorn and I have never seen them in a market.
Meng Li
Chinese Hot Pots
After returning to the United States, what I miss most is the Chinese hot pot. In China, hot pots are very popular, especially the spicy one. Chatting with good friends while eating hot pot is very exciting! Fortunately, preparing a hot pot is very simple: you only need a pot, seasonings, meat, and noodles. Unfortunately, there are very few hot pot ingredients here, but it is possible to find hot pots in DC.
Liju Feng