• Gail Servoss-Graduating in English and TESOL in December 1989, I beat my 40th birthday by a few months! I was lucky enough to obtain my first teaching job the following fall at North High School here in Eau Claire. It has been quite a ride. In the beginning I taught mostly Hmong refugees with a few other second language speakers sprinkled in. After several years most of my students were children who were born in the USA but struggled with academic English. Soon, most of North's content area ESL classes were abandoned to give more support to students in their "mainstream" content area classes.  I continued to teach an ESL English class, however. Two and a half years ago I welcomed the opportunity to become a member of Northstar Middle School's staff.  There I became an advocate for the second language students and started to teach a preteaching class to help prepare them for their classes.Now in Eau Claire, we have brand new students directly from Thailand, so my job has changed once again.  I am back full-time at North where ESL content area classes (now  named ELL) are back. Currently, I teach ELL English and Science. I have come full-circle and am enjoying every hectic minute!  1/27/05

• Nadya Kim- Having returned to Kazakhstan last summer I had one month to visit my friends and family, re-adjust to my culture, think of the future, decide what I really wanted to do, and find a new job. In my mind, I succeeded in everything besides the ‘culture thing’ – I am still grumbling about some cultural differences :-) Currently, I am working at the Academy of Languages, a small private institute with 3 majors: Linguistics, TEFL, and Translation, in Shymkent. I am teaching a pronunciation course, a course of phonetics (theory) and two levels of integrated language skills. My students are highly motivated, active and hard-working young people. I really enjoy working with them and take the opportunity to implement everything I learnt while studying and working at UWEC and use the materials I brought with me. Also, I take part in the work of TESh, a professional organization of English Teachers of Shymkent, have made three presentations and am thinking of a demonstration class. I often think of the professional and personal experience I got in Eau Claire and do miss my professors and friends. Yesterday, I met a woman from the Milwaukee area. The world is so small!!! 1/28/05

• Oleg Yefimov-After one year of wonderful experience in UWEC, I returned to Ukraine . I still had two years of studies, however I was so eager to apply all the knowledge I gained from UWEC's great professors. I applied for an internship in one of Kyiv's secondary schools – I had a nice opportunity to teach English and German to 3rd graders (9-year old kids), 7th graders (13-year old kids) and 11th graders (17-year olds). It was great. Having graduated from my university (summer 2004), I got a job at news agency Interfax-Ukraine, at the same time working at an English school, where now I can polish my professional skills, gaining new experience every single day. However, I feel that I need more education, so I plan to apply for a program at Kyiv National University this summer.

• Heather Anne Williams- I guess I don't truly feel like an alumni yet, being that I just graduated in December, but I am so ecstatic to see this section of the webpage. I love hearing what everybody else is up to!
• I finished student teaching with a fantastic semester working along side Elizabeth Kitzman, a familiar face of the UWEC's TESOL program. I worked with her in 2 hours of High School ESL and afternoons in ESL sessions with elementary students from two of the district's elementary schools.
• I recently signed my first contract as a long-term sub for 2 nd grade for Holly Rantala who is taking maternity leave from Robbins. It is exciting and scary all at the same time. When school's out in June, I plan to spend the summer with my grandma in Southern MN . During these rent-free three months, in addition to helping grandma mow the lawn, I plan to research jobs in North Carolina , where I will be moving in August with my boyfriend and 3 of our close friends.
• I recently discovered this quote and I think it is perfect….
• “The best way to find yourself is by losing yourself in the service of others” –Gandhi
• Peace and Love, Heather Anne Williams ms_hwill@yahoo.com

• Stacey Bolton- I graduated from UWEC in 2002 and spent two years teaching English in Japan . I participated in the Wisconsin-Chiba Sister State ALT program and was placed at an all girls, upper level, high school in Chiba city. I also assisted the school with their international programs and acted at president of the Chiba-WI Friendship Association. In July of 2004, I returned to the U.S. and began the job search. In September I started working as a Program Associate in the Learning Abroad Center at the University of Minnesota. I work with our exchange programs, our German programs, our New Zealand programs and HECUA. I also work with the IT department as a member of the Curriculum Integration team. In addition, I am currently a student in the CIDE Masters program here at the University of Minnesota.

• Liz Kitzmann is currently a K-12 ESL teacher in Menomonie, Wisc. Her busy family life is shared with many animals and hobbies, and when she is not working for Menomonie School District as a teacher/presenter/ESL consultant, she is really enjoying teaching various TESOL courses at UWEC.

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