contents - Gallatin School of Individualized Study - New York ...

GALLATIN alumnae Introduction10English Language Learners in Elmhurst, Queens through the New York CityTeaching Fellows program. In September 2010 she completed her M.A. inEducation for TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) fromCity College.“I am now in my fourth year as a full-time ESOL teacher, and I continueto be inspired by my dynamic, diverse, resilient, resourceful students, all ofwhom are either immigrants or children of immigrants. I have no doubt thatthe relationships I cultivated as an adult ESOL teacher in the Literacy in Actioncourse, and the irony, bravery, heartbreak, hardship, triumph and resounding joythat I have experienced through the work of contributors to the Literacy Reviewhave made me a better teacher and a more compassionate human being. Becauseof these experiences, I am able to approach my work not as an outsider, but as amember of a community, working side by side with my students and their familiesto make an American Dream something worth believing in.”Nikki D’Errico was an editor of the Literacy Review, Volumes 2 and 3;editor in chief of Volume 4; and a student-teacher in the University SettlementSociety advanced writing class and the International Rescue Committee writingclass. She went on to work with the Peace Corps in Moldova, and is now a doctoralstudent in medical anthropology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Hiredby the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to do a population survey in Congo, she iswriting her dissertation on intergenerational stress between mother-infant dyadswhen the pregnancy has resulted from rape. Her work will include an evaluation ofUSAID intervention in sexual and gender-based violence.“Participating in Gallatin’s Literacy Project changed my career pathand life trajectory in general. Teaching adult immigrants was a consciousnessraisingexperience, and provided me with the tools necessary to affect change ona community level with adults in Moldova, where I was a Peace Corps volunteer.Working in classrooms in New York City taught me the kind of cultural sensitivitynecessary to move forward in a global world. Most importantly, it forced me tochallenge the culturally-conditioned ethnocentrism I was subconsciously carryingaround. As a doctoral student at the University of Florida, I am pursuing a degreein medical anthropology because I want to continue the kind of cross-culturaladvocacy I learned at Gallatin.”