Texas Tech University

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Cait Mongrain, M.A. Classics 2015

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Cait Mongrain has been an active member of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures since becoming a Classics major in 2011. During her tenure in the department, she has completed both her undergraduate degree (2012) and her Master's (2015), with a thesis entitled The Spectacle of the "New": Novelty in the Roman Arena as a Literary Trope. Since finishing the MA, Cait has taught full time as an instructor in Classics, focusing on first- and second-year Latin, as well as serving as the Editorial Assistant for the American Journal of Philology, under the leadership of David Larmour. This fall, Cait will be leaving to pursue a PhD in Classics at Princeton University. She wishes to extend her thanks to the faculty of the Classics department and to the administration of CMLL for their unfailing support. She would also like to express her gratitude to her students, current and former, whose enthusiasm, humor, and hard work made the job worthwhile.

Camille Gonçalves Vilela dos Santo, M.A. LACU-Applied Linguistics 2017

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Vilela is pursuing her doctoral studies in English at Florida State University. She earned a M.A. in Languages and Cultures and a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English in International Context in May 2017. A Brazilian native, she worked as a Graduate Part-Time Instructor teaching Portuguese during her academic career at Texas Tech University.

Rachael Winfrey, MA LACU –Applied Linguistics 2017

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Since my graduation from the Applied Linguistics program in 2017, I have been teaching in an adjunct capacity, instructing a developmental English course being taught to inmates incarcerated at the Huntsville Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. I've been able to use my training in language acquisition to increase the writing ability and reading comprehension of my students, and have had a very successful, and extremely challenging semester.

As a first-time instructor, this semester has been full of experiences that have allowed me to develop more comprehensive insight about the novice language learner- my students' educational background is mostly completed within prison system, which unfortunately is not as academically robust as what we would expect of a traditional, first-year college student's education in the free world. Because of the level of my student, I have been able to apply my training in language acquisition a great deal when creating materials and tasks for each lesson. The success and failure of the application of the various tasks and materials I have created has allowed me to develop a more intimate understanding of my teaching style and philosophy, which has changed drastically since I was an ESL teaching assistant. This can be attributed not only to the success and failure of my lesson plans, but also to the nature of my student- an inmate-student has vastly different psychology and needs compared to a traditional, free-world student. If you are interested in a crash-course for developing patience, tolerance, and humility as an instructor, teach within the prison system! That being said, I absolutely love teaching, and will be continuing this position over the summer.

I am, however, still aspiring for international teaching experience, and have applied to various lecture positions in France. My position as an instructor has renewed my interest in research and study, as I predicted. Therefore, I am planning to (hopefully) subject myself once again to the graduate student experience, and will applying to doctoral programs very soon. Thank you for taking the time to read about my experience after graduation! Hopefully, the next time you read something I've written it will be in a published capacity.
Good luck to all academics- may the intellectual quest never cease, and long live the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures! -Rachael Winfrey, Applied Linguistics MA

Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures

  • Address

    CMLL Building, 2906 18th St, Lubbock, TX 79409
  • Phone

    806.742.3145