Category Archives: Alumni

Recent Graduate Chiara Salce’s Published Translation

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A divided Congress seeks Papal approval amid ongoing debate on abortion financing

Tomorrow, Francis will be welcomed by a Congress that is in constant cultural war, with Democrats longing for a Pope’s wink in the right direction, and Republicans wrinkling their noses when topics like climate change, inequality and immigration come up

di Mattia Ferraresi | 23 Settembre 2015 ore 19:45

Papa Francesco (foto LaPresse)
Papa Francesco (foto LaPresse)

Washington, DC. Tomorrow, Francis will be welcomed by a Congress that is in constant cultural war, with Democrats longing for a Pope’s wink in the right direction, and Republicans wrinkling their noses when topics like climate change, inequality and immigration come up. However, these days the debate is dominated by one issue: Planned Parenthood, i.e. abortion and contraceptives.

Last week, the House passed a measure to temporarily cut off public funding to the health services organization. This one-year measure would allow the investigation of the actions brought to light after a series of videos released by a Pro-Life association went viral. The activists showed footage of Planned Parenthood executives having lunch while they discussed the use of fetal organs and tissues for medical research.

When the Planned Parenthood scandal broke worldwide, the Cardinal of Boston, Sean O’Malley, took a strong stand against the culture of abortion and the “standard practice of obtaining fetal organs”, actions that “fail to respect the humanity and dignity of human life”. O’Malley was referring to the “throwaway culture” condemned by Francis, and he recommended these issues be “the center of attention in the present public controversy”. And so it was.

Some Republicans in Congress have introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and have made this vote conditional to the passing of the budget, threatening a government shutdown, which would take effect on October 1st if no agreement is reached. This is the same strategy used in 2013 to defund Obamacare. That attempt failed, and this one risks failing too, since the divided Republicans do not have the 60 votes in the Senate necessary to pass the bill.

In the Church’s reconciling embrace so dear to Democrats, there is room for the New York Times editorial, intended to convince Pope Francis to open up to contraceptives, based on the pill’s popularity among Catholics. However, there also seems to be room for the left’s vote that has recently blocked a Senate bill, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks.

traduzione a cura di Chiara Salce

Students and alumni working at EF

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A few of our MIIS students and alumni working at English First. The photo was taken in Cambridge, MA at EF headquarters during the annual senior staff training event.

From left to right:

Nate Hammond – Center Manager, Santa Cruz
Michael Hughes – Center Manager, Long Beach and Program Coordinator, West Coast
Cortney Copeland – Activities Manager, Monterey
Nolan Sutker – Senior Academic Manager, East Coast
Leslie Closterman – Student Services Coordinator, Monterey
Jaimee DePompeo – Center Manager, Monterey

MIIS Alum Adnan Al-Hammody published

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MIIS Alum Adnan Al-Hammody, MA TESOL 2013, has recently been published. The paper is called When a Facebook Group Makes a Difference: Facebook for Language Learning, and was written during his time as a student at MIIS for Applied Linguistics Research and as part of his portfolio. The paper investigates what Iraqi students gain from interacting in English in a Facebook group in an EFL context.

Adnan’s paper was published by the e-journal English Language Teaching World Online (ELTWO), and can be found at this link: http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2014/04/22/when-a-facebook-group-makes-a-difference-facebook-for-language-learning/.

Congratulations to Adnan!

TESOL Professor Jean Turner’s book published

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9780415819947

The textbook that MIIS TESOL Professor Jean Turner has been working on since her sabbatical in 2008-9, “Using Statistics in Small-Scale Language Education Research: Focus on Non-Parametric Data,” is now available from Routledge publishing. The book addresses an important concern for people doing small-scale research—how to use the statistical formulas that are appropriate for analyzing data that are skewed and from relatively small numbers of participants, as is the case with much of the statistical research done in language classrooms. She has continued to explore her interest in accent modification and co-taught a class on accent modification for interpreters-in-training with MIIS TESOL graduate, Audrey Gutierrez. The report on the needs assessment they conducted to inform the design of their course was just published in issue 14 of the Special Interest Group publication for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Any MIIS faculty, students or staff wishing to purchase this book can receive 20% off if they order from the Routledge website and enter the code IRK69.

Congratulations to Jean Turner!

MIIS Alumni Mingle at CATESOL Conference

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CATESOL 2013 - MIIS Alumni

MIIS Alumni: Back Row: Don Sillings, Larry Lawson, Tammy Wik, Jeff Madison. Middle Row: Gary Sosa, Karen Hamilton, Celeste Coleman, Belinda Braunstein. Front Row: Erin Butler, Chigusa Katoku.

Many MIIS graduates, students, and faculty attended the 44th Annual CATESOL Conference two weeks ago in San Diego. The conference is for TESOL professionals in California, and the theme this year was “Riding the Waves of Success,” which dealt with the challenges and achievements educators and students face when teaching or learning English. The event included pre‑conference institutes, multiple plenaries, featured speakers, level and interest group workshops, poster sessions, an electronic village, and general sessions for every level of ESL. Highlights of the conference were the opening plenary, the Thursday evening reception, the Presidential Luncheon on Friday, and the Saturday Night Sizzle.

CATESOL 2013 (2)

The event was a great opportunity for all TESOL educators and students to come together, especially current and past TESOL educators and students from MIIS. Many MIIS students, graduates, and faculty attended the event, including Tammy Wik, MA TESOL ‘10, who is currently the English Language Fellow Program (ELF) Regional Recruitment Coordinator for MIIS, and Celeste Coleman, also a TESOL graduate and English Language Fellow (see picture, right). All of the MIIS graduates met up and hung out at the Saturday Night Sizzle, which was a fun 2-hour social event on the last night of the conference (see featured picture above, with captions). Considering there were only about 100 total people who attended the social hour, there was a great turn out of MIIS people at the event.

TESOL Alumna Writes Memorial Piece for Dr. Leo van Lier

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LeovanLier

Caroline Fuchs, an alumna of the MIIS MATESOL program, recently published a memorial piece for the late Dr. Leo van Lier. According to Caroline, “words can’t do justice to the wisdom that Leo encompassed for those who were fortunate enough to have known him. This is my humble attempt at expressing my thoughts.”

If you would like to read the piece in its entirety, you can download it here.

MIIS faculty coach Middlebury students at Clifford Symposium

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MIIS Professors Barry Slaughter Olsen and Jacolyn Harmer were invited to participate in the annual Clifford Symposium at Middlebury last week. The topic of this year’s Symposium was “Translation in A Global Community: Theory and Practice.” As part of this event, Middlebury brought in faculty from MIIS to work together with Middlebury students. The Middlebury students were invited to try their hand at interpretation with coaching from Olsen and Harmer. (see video)

From an interpretation booth on stage, two MIIS graduates were interpreting the keynote speaker’s address into Chinese for audience members.

Summer Interpreting Course in Spain

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In one of the Palace conference rooms

For the third consecutive summer, Professor Cas Shulman-Mora taught and directed the International Conference Interpretation Practicum at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Katerina Borghi (MATI 14) and Miguel Garcia (MACI 14)Pelayo in Santander, Spain. She was joined again this summer by teaching assistant Arielle Weisman (MATI 2011). This year, the course included a large contingent of current MIIS students and alumni: Susana Piñón (MACI 1999), Laura Merino (MACI 2011), Katerina Borghi (MATI candidate 2014), and Miguel García (MACI candidate 2014).

During the two-week course, Spaniards who recently graduated from interpretation programs at local universities, as well as professional interpreters from Belgium and Romania, worked alongside the MIIS students and graduates interpreting in mute booths at live conferences held at the seaside Spanish conference center. One of the bonuses of having such a diverse group of participants was that the MIIS students had the chance to network with Monterey Institute alums who are already active in the Spanish market, as well as other interpreters who primarily work at the European institutions.International Conference Interpretation Practicum

The conferences covered a wide variety of topics, such as smart cities, psychology, immigration policy, and how to write a crime novel. Exposure to high-level material enabled participants to hone their skills in an authentic environment while receiving extensive feedback on their interpretation. Because the conference topics change every summer, some interpreters have even opted to repeat the course two years in a row.

All in all, the camaraderie and conference material—not to mention living and working in a turn-of-the-century former royal palace located on the scenic northern coast of Spain—made this summer practicum an informative and enjoyable experience for students and working professionals alike.

TESOL Alumni Update from Brandy Barter

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In an email update, TESOL alum Brandy Barter shared some good news. She recently accepted an ESL instructor position at Millikin University–a small private college in central Illinois. It is also only 30 minutes from her hometown. In the interview, she bonded with the director of the program, Steven Hales, a fellow MIIS TESOL alum, over all the TESOL professors. It’s great to see the MIIS network in action!