Linguistics
Irina Pidberejna
Irina Pidberejna graduated Cum Laude from the University of Central Florida in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts and Emerging Media Management and an accompanying minor in Russian Studies. Ms. Pidberejna also studied at the University of Alabama and received her Master's degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MATESOL). Irina Pidberejna has also worked as a Russian language tutor, and full-time instructor for the STARTALK program at UCF. Ms. Pidberejna is now a co-teacher of MATESOL at the University of Alabama.
Irina Pidberejna is using her education to assist the Fulbright-Hays GPA by working to develop a Russian Art History program and to teach two different Russian courses. The syllabi for Ms. Pidberejna's courses have been included below and provide an overview of course highlights and expectations.
Irina Pidberejna
Co-Teacher of MATESOL at the University of Alabama
Russian language tutor
STARTALK instructor
UCF alumna
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Irina Pidberejna at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia
Dr. Florin Mihai
Associate Professor of TESOL at UCF
PhD. in Multicultural and Multilingual Education
Principal Investigator for two Federally Funded Grants
Dr. Florin Mihai
Dr. Florin Mihai is currently an Associate Professor of TESOL at the University of Central Florida. He teaches the graduate course Applied Linguistics (TSL 6250) at UCF. Dr. Mihai boasts several publications of articles and chapters he has written in the TESOL and CATSOL Journals, as well as in conjunction with Harvard Education Press and Routledge, just to name a few.
Dr. Mihai's Fulbright-Hays GPA specialization is to integrate Russian language into his graduate course. In this course, students will be introduced to Russian language, culture, morphology, and phonology. The syllabus for this course is included below in its entirety and includes highlights for the segments where Russian is being integrated into his course content.
(Dr. Florin Mihai, right)
Dr. Alla Kourova
Dr. Alla Kourova is an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida, where she teaches all levels of Russian and graduate TESOL courses. Dr. Kourova also has over fifty publications.
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Dr. Alla Kourova is the Principal Investigator of the Fulbright-Hays GPA to Russia, specializing in language and culture. Dr Kourova is working to create a textbook guide for Business Russian, new curricula for advanced courses, and using videos and digital stories to create a guide for studying abroad. In addition, Dr. Kourova has redesigned her Elementary Russian I course (RUS 1121) by using a digital repository to provide her students with new online content to make Russian language and cultural experiences more accessible. In reference to her course redesign, Dr. Kourova has said, "Greater exposure to the material will help students to overcome obstacles inherent within second language acquisition." Two site links have been attached providing further information in regards to Dr. Kourova's course redesign.
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Dr. Alla Kourova
Associate Professor of Russian Language and TESOL at the University of Central Florida
Principal Investigator of Fulbright-Hays GPA to Russia
Principal Investigator of STARTALK
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Dr. Alla Kourova in Rostov, Russia
Kerry Sullivan
High School teacher at Winter Springs High School
College Board Consultant
Kerry Sullivan
Kerry Sullivan is a high school teacher of AP/IB Spanish in Winter Park. Ms. Sullivan is also a College Board Consultant and works to train other world language leaders for the AP language programs. Kerry Sullivan holds a B.A. and M.A. in Spanish, and has traveled extensively through Europe and South America to further her language studies.
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Ms. Sullivan's specialty for the Fulbright-Hays GPA to Russia is “The Russian Identify Reasserting Itself in a post- perestroika /glasnost era as expressed in Popular Culture.” From here, Kerry Sullivan plans to develop a Russia film serious, offer Russian Language and Studies courses to the International Baccalaureate D.P. at Winter Springs High School, where she works. Ms. Sullivan will also work to present her research at a variety of World Language conferences.
Kerry Sullivan and her daughter in front of
one of the Kremlin towers in Moscow, Russia.