Jesus Ramirez, Spanish PhD 2019
Dr. Ramirez is the Director of World Languages Division and Interpreting Program and Assistant Professor of Spanish at the College of Saint Mary (Omaha, Nebraska). He recently received the "Job Well Done Award" as the best professor at the College of Saint Mary. The Student Senate presents this award each year to a deserving professor. As the pandemic affected everything, this year the award is very significant for all the hard work done.
Mourad Abdennebi, MA LACU-Applied Linguistics, 2020
This academic year has been full of challenges, but also great opportunities for growth and learning. I am pleased to announce that I have been admitted to the SLAT Ph.D. program at the University of Arizona and was able to receive one of the prestigious graduate fellowships “University Fellow Award”. I would like to thank Dr. Michelson, Dr. Lee, Dr. Idoia, Dr. Gorsuch, and Ms. Carla Burrus for believing in me and supporting my Ph.D. applications and for providing me with this opportunity to share my passion for Applied Linguistics and SLA as a Ph.D. candidate.
As a Ph.D. candidate, I will be in exploring the cognitive processes that assist adult language learners to effectively learn vocabulary and the role of visual stimulation in enhancing vocabulary acquisition, I discovered this interest by engaging in various research projects with faculty at TTU especially with Dr. Kristen Michelson and Dr. James. F. Lee. The SLAT Ph.D. is interdisciplinary in nature with connected programs, such as cognitive science, psychology, speech, and language. Having strong connections with other programs and departments will provide me with valuable resources to advance my research, especially investigating the interplay between cognitive psychology and neuroscience in language development.
As part of my OPT, I am teaching French-Arabic at St. Anselms Abbey School in D.C. Although it has been a challenging year, I have learned so much and adapted my teaching strategy to teaching virtually with the help of faculty especially the Language department. Working asynchronously with my students also showed me new ways of interacting with students while helping them advance in their own learning and growth. I will miss all my students, they are hard-working, intelligent, curious beyond what I have imagined, they made classes lively and asked great questions, and demonstrate the great application of language learning. This shows me how brilliant they are and I am sure they will advance in their language learning and make an amazing impact on the world. One of my favorite memories at the Abbey is the first day we were back to school face to face, it was awesome to interact with all the faculty and students that I have met since the beginning of the year through Zoom, it was awesome to see faces and hear students voices and enthusiasm in class and hallways and combine the joy of being in school with the virtual format of leaning. I have enjoyed exploring D.C and the amazing things the capital city has to offer and I am excited to embark on a new journey in Arizona, however, I will never forget Lubbock, Texas, and Texas Tech University because from there everything was possible!
Thank you and always WRECK'EM!
Yamato earned a master's degree in Languages & Cultures-Applied Linguistics in spring 2020. During his OPT year 2020-2021, he worked as a Japanese instructor. He is leaving Lubbock for a position as Japanese instructor at the University of Michigan beginning fall 2021.
“It is sad that I am leaving Lubbock and will definitely miss the time here, but I will do my best to survive in the cold weather.” - Yamato
Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures
CMLL Building, 2906 18th St, Lubbock, TX 79409 -