“This photo caught me in the act of describing exactly how one goes about catching a unique rabbit. I’m a repeat grad student (MA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College) with a strong bias for visual communication and design. I love soup, cleaning my house, and find myself playing unrelenting zookeeper to the various wildlife I encounter lurking around my neighborhood.”– Christopher Daradics

Why did you choose to enter the LTS program?

After teaching, in one form or another, for over a decade I’d never felt entirely satisfied being constrained to a single context. I was looking for a way to integrate my passion for teaching with my other major life interests: international travel; graphic, communication, and experience design; and language(s). The LTS program presented itself as an opportunity to integrate my core strengths and passions and work my way towards a career in curriculum design.

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What is it like doing the LTS program with years of experience teaching in a different context?

Wow, this is a tough question to answer. It’s both orienting and disorienting, I guess. Often in life I find myself approaching things from an unconventional position, my teaching practice included. Although I see this as one of my strengths, having a creative mind and strong point of view, the LTS program is grounding me in the professional context and community of international language education. Another way of putting it would be to say that the LTS program is affirming and building on what I’m good at while at the same time bolstering and filling in the gaps where I need some work.

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Tell us about your internship this term.

This term I had the distinct privilege of interning with the American English Institute on campus in an English for Academic Purposes writing course. Much like my last answer, it’s been encouraging to see how directly my experience teaching in other contexts translates to this setting. Along the same lines,  it has been a huge delight to work with such talented and professional folks at the AEI.

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What are you most looking forward to in your remaining time in the program?

The truth of it is, I’m having a blast. Classes have been great, our instructors are phenomenal, there are some upcoming electives that I’m hoping will blow my mind. But, it would be a lie to not say, loud and clear, that I’m most looking forward to digging into my capstone project. I can hardly stop thinking about it, and not because I’m stressed, but because I’m so dang excited. Like I said before, I’ve come to this program in order to integrate my primary passions and my capstone project is doing just that.