Alumni Association

CIFLTE Program attended: TCSOL One-Year Program (2016-2017)

Chun (Rachel) Chen has been teaching Mandarin to learners at all levels for over 4 years. Recently, she has worked for The City College of New York as an adjunct lecturer, and served as the head Mandarin instructor at a New York-based Mandarin immersion program. Prior to moving to the United States, Rachel taught at various programs throughout China, including the Columbia University in Beijing summer immersion program, the CET academic program, and the IES Abroad program. Rachel graduated from the TCSOL program in 2017 and has an MA in Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition from The Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as a BA in TCSOL from Jinan University, China. She respects individual difference and culture, and she believes that learning Mandarin can always be fun and engaging. 

CIFLTE Program attended: TCSOL One-Year Program (2017-2018)

Cong Dong (Jojo) holds a masters degree in Chinese Linguistics and Literature from Ewha Women’s University in South Korea and is continuing to work toward her PhD. She has taught Chinese and Korean language for more than 6 years. Jojo graduated from the certificate program in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL) at Columbia University Teacher’s College in 2018. From the program, she developed a thorough understanding of teaching methods for second language acquisition, with an emphasis on task-based language teaching. Her thesis on this subject has been selected for presentation at the 17th New York International Conference on Teaching Chinese.

CIFLTE Program attended: TCSOL One-Year Program (2018-2019)

Michelle is from Beijing, China. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Kean University and Rutgers University in New Jersey, the U.S. She has lived in Japan for eight years, where she studied Japanese at Takusoyoko University in Tokyo. Since 2017, she has become COO and a business partner at Manhattan Mandarin which is one of the well known Mandarin education organizations in New York. She is currently serving as a board member of Manhattan Mandarin Scholarship Foundation (NPO). During the TCSOL program and Bilingual Education courses, she expanded her knowledge through learning how to teach languages, which she considers as a rewarding experience. To Michelle, language is not a simple tool of communication, but the beauty lies in that language acquisition leads to equipping a lens to appreciate different cultures and understand the diversity. Michelle is passionate about sharing her language learning experiences with young learners.

CIFLTE Program attended: TCSOL One-Year Program (2016-2017)

Lanjun Cheng is an alumna of 2016-2017 TCSOL one-year Program in New York City. Before she went to the TCSOL program, she has obtained her MA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, majored in Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition. She has been teaching Chinese as a second language for five years and used to be a Mandarin teacher of multiple levels at CTP in CIFLTE, Macalester College, CSI (China Studies Institute) Program in Peking University, and Columbia in Beijing Summer Program etc.  During her study at the TCSOL one-year program, she also worked as an administrative assistant for CIFLTE in TC. Now she is a Chinese teacher and yearbook advisor at Guangzhou BASIS International School. 

CIFLTE Programs attended: Osaka Summer Program (2018); TCSOL One-Year Program (2018-2019)

Hongru Pan graduated from CIFLTE's TESOL&TCSOL Dual Certificate summer program in Osaka in 2018. She also attended the one-year TCSOL program at Teachers College. Recently she has worked for New York Chinese School as a Chinese teacher, while she is working on education entrepreneurship. Before joining TCSOL, she was a graduate student in History and Hebrew language. She is also a Chinese poet who have published two poetry books in China and her poems have been included in numerous poetry journals. Her research interests include task-based language teaching, cross-cultural identity, and children’s literacy. 

CIFLTE Programs attended: Osaka Summer Program (2018); TCSOL One-Year Program (2018-2019)

Jing Shan is a native speaker of Mandarin. She received her MS and MPH degrees in Community Health Nursing and Urban Public Health from Hunter College, CUNY. Prior to becoming a language teacher, she has worked with non-profit organizations utilizing her diverse background in community health and social services in promoting wellness and healing. Jing transitioned into the education field during her 2 months of travelling in China, last summer of 2018. She has successfully completed the TESOL/TCSOL Dual Certificate Program co-sponsored by Teachers College and Osaka Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan. Jing is currently enrolled in the TCSOL program at Columbia University to further her studies in Chinese linguistics and pedagogy, and is expected to graduate in May 2019. Thanks to her classmate from the same program, she has been a part of the Manhattan Mandarin NYC team where she teaches after school classes and private tutoring. During the recent spring break, she has completed a week-long Internship with the Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School, and is hoping to continue to learn more about language immersion programs and inclusive education.  

CIFLTE Program attended: Beijing Summer Program (2018)

Karen graduated from the TCSOL/ TESOL Summer Dual Certificate program in Beijing in 2018. She currently works as a high school English teacher and the administrator of the international department of Xiang Xian High School in Guangzhou. She used to be the core member of the English Curriculum Reform and Implementation Research Group of Panyu Educational Burau in Guangzhou. Her active involvement in international education and professional development will help develop the network of the foreign language teacher education.

CIFLTE Program attended: Osaka Summer Program (2018)

CIFLTE Programs attended: Beijing Summer Program (2018)；TCSOL One-Year Program (2018-2019)

My name is Yi-Chun (Gloria) Sheng; I was born and raised in Taiwan. Moving to the US after graduating from middle school, I am bilingually proficient in both Mandarin Chinese and English. I was a finance and pre-med major in college and worked in the business industry for about 4 years in the tri-state area before I made a career change into teaching - Chinese for all levels and various other subjects for kindergarten in Houston, Texas. I have been teaching on and off for over 15 years in Taiwan, China, and the US, and am enjoying every minute of it. 

CIFLTE Program attended: Osaka Summer Program (2018)

Peter Tai has been teaching English in a Hong Kong primary school for three years.  He has an MA in Language Studies from Hong Kong Baptist University. To sharpen his understanding of language teaching, he also read for the Postgraduate Diploma in Education at The Education University of Hong Kong and the TESOL Certificate of Columbia-Osaka Gakuin in 2018. Driven by the diverse linguistic background of HK, Peter has a strong interest in researching on multilingualism in the Hong Kong primary school setting.  He believes that teaching languages to young learners is one of the most fascinating and challenging attributes of life.

CIFLTE Program attended: TCSOL One-Year Program (2018-2019)

Lanfang Hu is an alumina of 2018-2019 TCSOL one-year Program in New York City. Before joining the TCSOL program, she has taught English for five years and Chinese for three years to college students at the Henan University of Technology in China and the University of Central Florida in the US. Her other working experiences include a program director of an international program at a high school in China and a web-based one-on-one teacher of Chinese and English languages to learners of all age groups. Her future career goal is to continue teaching Chinese and meanwhile conduct research on task-based language teaching and learning. She also has the specialty in TESOL and Curriculum and Instruction. In the future, she would love to get involved in the areas of bilingual/bicultural education, program development, and teacher training.