Alumni

Paulette Arquer is from Guayama, Puerto Rico and moved to the mainland United States once she graduated high school. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in English with concentrations in Literary and Cultural Studies, Writing, and Rhetoric from the Pennsylvania State University. As a second year student, Paulette will be working on the project: Special Ways of Knowing: Learning with Bilingual Children with Mild Disabilities as part of the Zankel Urban Fellowship.

Sophie Dimich-Louvet graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with a BA in French-English Translation in 2016. Born to a French father and an American mother, she spent the first half of her life in Paris, France and the second half in Billings, Montana. Sophie student taught at the International School of Brooklyn while completing her masters in Bilingual/Bicultural Studies and recently finished a three month internship at HEC Paris as a program coordinator. Post graduation, Sophie hopes to pursue a career in program coordination in France.

Robin Stieglitz completed her undergraduate studies at Binghamton University where she received bachelors in both Spanish Literature and French Linguistics. She spent the past year as a graduate intern in the Graduate Student Affairs office at Columbia Engineering where she worked with a highly international population. She is excited to learn alongside many young children this year both at her student teaching and at an after-school program facilitated by her adviser, Dr. Martínez-Álvarez. After graduating from TC in May 2018, she hopes to do additional traveling in South America, before teaching in an inclusive bilingual elementary school.

Katherine Keim-Riveros is from Santiago, Chile, and holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature and an M.Ed., mention in Educational Informatics from Universidad de Chile, and an M.A. in Bilingual/Bicultural Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. After the program in NYC, she returned to Chile and is currently working as a higher education teacher at Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She trains pedagogy students to become English school teachers and to teach English as a foreign language. 

Milagros Rodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the United States when she was 8 months old! She has lived in Queens, NY ever since. When she started school in NYC, she was in a transitional bilingual program up to the 3rd grade. She has always been passionate about education and wanted to provide to other students the opportunity given to her as a child. She graduated El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice in Brooklyn, NY as Salutatorian and went on to the University of Rochester. She majored in Spanish Literature and minored in Business. She then pursued a Masters in Bilingual Bicultural Special Education at TC. She is now a 3rd grade Special Education teacher (ICT) at P.S.108 in Brooklyn.

Naomi Erlewine received her Masters in BBE in May 2015. As the daughter of a Japanese mother and American father, she grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota speaking English and Japanese and was always immersed in a bicultural environment. Naomi currently teaches at a Japanese-English dual language program in Glendale, Southern California. Through her work as an educator, she would like to advocate for diversity in education and support the identity development of multiracial children.

Elizabeth Ma was born and raised in Hong Kong. She attended Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Institute of Education to pursue her bachelor degrees in English Studies and English Language Education. During her college years, she was offered opportunities to study abroad in Australia and to complete an internship in the UK. The experiences led her to gain interest in Bilingual Education. She thus furthered her studies in the Bilingual/Bicultural Education program at TC. Throughout the two years with BBE, Elizabeth participated in research projects, and observed and taught in bilingual classrooms. She is currently working as a bilingual teacher in an NYC public school, growing and learning more every day with her students about living among different cultures and speaking multiple languages.

Originally from Shanghai, China, Xiaojun Xie earned her bachelor degree from East China Normal University, with a major of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. Currently, she is a Dual Language Mandarin teacher at PS 20M The Anna Silver School. She teaches in a side-by-side classroom, where she work closely with an English co-teacher to help both native speakers and language learners learn content subjects using Mandarin. The BBE program has always supported her to explore the world of bilingual education, and to keep growing as an effective bilingual teacher.

Sarah McLean grew up in New England, attended college at Yale University, and is a 2005 graduate of the M.A. Program in Bilingual/Bicultural Education. She speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, which she used for 12 years as a dual-language classroom teacher and Head of English Learning at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong. Sarah is currently Grammar School Director at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York.

Jiahui ‘Elaine’ Lin is originally from Nanjing, China. She moved to Portland, Oregon when she was 16 as an exchange student, and since then she decided to study abroad. Her undergraduate degree is TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from The Ohio State University. During her undergraduate study, she gained more experience in teaching, and thus decided to continue her study in education.

Xinhe Zhou graduated from Wenzhou-Kean University in Zhejiang, China, a Sino-American university. Her interests include hiking, writing, and translating. During her undergraduate study, she served as the fiction and nonfiction editor for two school literary magazines, and she translated Chinese writers' works into English. She also published three papers concerning human-computer interaction and teaching pedagogy.

Sunny Zeng is from Shenzhen, China. Sunny graduated from Smith College in 2014, having studied Economics, Philosophy and French. During the summer of 2013, Sunny taught at a rice farming village in Siem Reap, Cambodia and was inspired to become an educator. She was involved in various Philosophy for Children initiatives and fell in love with the experience of initiating young minds into the wonder of philosophy. Before coming to the BBE program, Sunny has obtained her M.Ed. degree in K-6 education from Vanderbilt University and worked as a fifth grade Math/Science teacher at Bank Street School for Children. Her interests include curriculum design, STEM education, bilingual education and Philosophy for Children.

Sarah Hinton is from Tacoma, Washington and graduated from Western Washington University with her bachelor's degree in Linguistics and double minors in Spanish and Teaching English as a Second Language. She worked as a English teacher in middle and secondary schools as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua and as a Youth Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia. She also taught high school students in the U.S. before beginning her master's. As a Peace Corps Fellow she currently teaches second grade in a bilingual English/Spanish dual-language program in Brooklyn, NY, in addition to her studies at TC. She hopes to encourage her young students to develop and take pride in their bilingual, bicultural identities while developing a love of reading and learning.

Catherine Chou graduated from New York University with a BA in Hospitality Management and a minor in Teacher Education. She was born in Taiwan and raised in China and New York. Catherine interned at Changchun American International School and Apex for Youth, and witnessed the literacy struggles bilingual students faced navigating two languages when exploring different disciplines. She wants to facilitate better educational opportunities for multilingual students.

Originally from China, Yingjun Wang graduated from Capital Normal University with a BA in Education. She can speak Mandarin and English but always wish to learn and teach with other language speakers to create a more diverse world. TC attracted her with its best location in NYC, an integrative program with rich teaching opportunities, and its strong faculty on bilingualism.

LuoEn Han was born China, and thereafter moved to the US. He graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a bachelor degree in Early-childhood and Childhood Education. He is now working as an lead UPK teacher in an non-profit organization. Outside from work, he was also a member of one of the many Willisamsburg rock bands.

Nosipho is from Syracuse, New York. She studied Social Anthropology and Public Health at Harvard and joined the Peace Corps shortly after graduating. As a Healthy Schools volunteer in the Ixil region of Guatemala from 2015 - 2017, she worked with the education community to increase health education and gender empowerment in schools. While working with teachers, she realized she herself wanted to be in the classroom. Nosipho is currently a Peace Corps Fellow in the BBE program and teaches Dual Language third grade in Brooklyn.

Madeline Rudden is from Norwalk, Connecticut and graduated from Boston College with her bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and Hispanic Studies concentrating on English Language Learners. She worked in a Shelter English Immersion first grade classroom for one year in Boston. After moving to NY, she taught for one year in first grade and is currently entering her second year teaching fourth grade in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. In addition to teaching, she is getting her Master's at TC on the professional track. She is passionate about the power of language and its impact on student development. She hopes to instill in her students a love of words and help them develop and take pride in their bilingualism.

Yanfei Zhou is from Nanjing, China. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in English from Xiamen University. During her undergraduate years, she interned at New Oriental Education & Technology Group as an English teacher. Born and bred in a family with several teachers, Yanfei gradually chose to take the same road and thus decides to devote herself to the field of education.

Only child to a single parent, I was born in NYC and lived in the States my entire life. My parents are from Mexico and I have visited the country two times- enough to fall in love with my mother's hometown. I completed my undergraduate degree in The City College of New York and prior to that, I completed my associate's degree at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Qiao is a student who transfers her major from law to education. Was born in Chongqing and raised in Shanghai, she obtained the different culture from her family. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, English, Cantonese, Shanghai and Chongqing dialects. Currently, she is a first-year graduate student in the dual certification track. Being bilingual or multilingual is a precious experience, and she wants to pass her experience as a multilingual learner to her future students.