What degree did you receive from Illinois and when?
Graduated with a Masters degree in TESL in 2013 and with a Doctoral degree in Linguistics/SLATE in 2019

What have you been doing since you graduated? What is your current title/position? How long have you worked there?
Since graduating in May 2019, I have joined the Program of Academic English at the University of California, Irvine as Academic Coordinator and Lecturer. I coordinate the TOEP (Test of Oral English Proficiency) for prospective graduate teaching assistants, participate in various curriculum-related projects, and teach a variety of undergraduate/graduate courses on academic writing, speaking, reading and vocabulary.

What are you working on right now?
I am currently working on several projects related to curriculum development and assessment. To name a few, with my colleagues at UC Irvine, I am developing an online textbook for an undergraduate course called "Reading & Vocabulary". We are also looking into students' performances at each course level to refine the assessment criteria/rubric and course objectives. In terms of publication, my co-authored paper with Dr. Melissa Bowles on written feedback processing has recently been published in TESOL Quarterly in its December 2019 issue. I have also been working on collaborative projects with Dr. Xun Yan and Dr. Ji Young Kim (Alumni, Spanish & Portuguese, UCLA) on the second language speaking assessment, and we hope to share our findings soon!

How has your degree from Illinois helped you in your career?
The MATESL and Linguistics/SLATE programs provided me with theoretical and practical knowledge that could easily be applied to the real world. Diverse teaching and researching opportunities I had under the guidance of amazing mentors have been invaluable (e.g., teaching ESL writing, administering the EPT), and these helped me grow professionally.

Posted: 02/10/2020

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