Alumni News
Andrew Koontz-Garboden
Alumni Profile:
Dr. Andrew Koontz-Garboden
(BA '99, MA '01)
I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester in Manchester, UK. My interest in linguistics started when I was an undergraduate at Indiana University, studying Spanish. My interest in the study of various Spanish linguistics topics, including that of tense and aspect, was piqued in a 300-level grammar course, and I thus began to consult Spanish-language grammars and delve more deeply into the details. This interest led to a study (my Honors Thesis) on the distribution of the past progressive and imperfect forms in the speech of Spanish speakers residing in Goshen, Indiana, my home town. I inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1998, and double-majored in Spanish and Portuguese in 1999.
I went on to complete a dual MA degree at IU in Spanish Linguistics and General Linguistics in 2001 and continued linguistics studies at Stanford University, where I wrote a dissertation entitled States, changes of state, and the Monotonicity Hypothesis under the guidance of Professor Beth Levin, finishing the doctoral degree in 2007.
Since 2007, I have been at the University of Manchester (UK) where my interests lie in the area of the morphosyntax/semantics interface and its implications for crosslinguistic variation. I am also a field linguist, interested in language documentation and description. I teach field methods and a number of semantics courses at various levels. Among the languages I have worked with, of particular interest are the Misumalpan languages, especially Ulwa (Nicaragua), Basaá (Bantu; Cameroon), Huave (isolate; Oaxaca), Tongan (Tonga in the South Pacific), along with Spanish and Portuguese. I have received several major grants from institutions both in the UK and the US, totaling in all more than $500,000, and have published many articles on the semantics-morphosyntax interface. Currently, I am working on two book-length projects.
When I’m not doing linguistics, I enjoy hiking, keeping up on current events, and learning about Latin American history and politics.
Robin Reeves with husband, Nate, and son, Max
Alumni Profile: Robin Reeves (BA ’03)
A life-long learner of Spanish
I graduated from IU Bloomington in May 2003 with Bachelor of Arts degrees with highest distinction (summa cum laude) in Spanish and Anthropology. Five years later I returned to IUB to work as a visiting lecturer in Spanish. I continue to teach mostly beginner and intermediate Spanish language courses to undergraduate students at IU, now as a senior lecturer. My undergraduate major in Spanish at IUB has profoundly impacted my life and work, and continues to impact my students today through my teaching and mentorship at the same institution.
I have many memorable experiences from my undergraduate career. Perhaps one of the most memorable was my participation in a semester-long study abroad program in Seville, Spain. In Seville I had a typical experience—I lived with a host family, was immersed in the language and culture and made some great friends, both English and Spanish speaking. I fell in love with the country and even more so with speaking the language. Upon returning, I had a very proud moment when a Spanish teacher who I had taken a class with previously at IUB told me how amazed and impressed she was with how much I had improved in just four months. My study abroad experience prompted me to change my Spanish minor into a major.
As a Spanish major, I particularly enjoyed a Spanish literature class with Professor Josep Sobrer, who sadly passed away a few years ago. In his class I was very impacted by our readings of Miguel de Unamuno. With the guidance of Professor Sobrer I wrote a paper exploring some of the themes found in Unamuno’s work, and I was later able to use this paper in an application to a Master’s program as evidence of the quality of my work. Not only did Professor Sobrer deeply engage his students and encourage critical thinking, he was also very lighthearted, funny and kind. He taught us about Spanish literature, but he also shared his perspective on life to connect with us. Josep Sobrer was a great professor because he made class time enjoyable while nurturing his students both academically and personally.
Following my graduation from IUB in 2003 I moved to Madrid, Spain, and underwent a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification course. I spent the following 6 months teaching English to business professionals, soaking up the language and culture of this amazing city as much as I could, and travelling throughout the country. Upon returning I began a Master’s program in Spanish education at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. With the help of the essay I wrote in Professor Sobrer’s class, I received a fellowship covering my first year’s tuition and living expenses. This Master’s degree was offered in conjunction with the University of Salamanca in Spain, and as part of the course work I spent the following two summers studying in this historic university where Miguel de Unamuno worked as a writer and professor.
After completing the Master’s program in 2007, a year of teaching Spanish in Indianapolis and a summer of volunteering in environmental projects in Costa Rica, I began my tenure in the classroom at IUB, where in addition to teaching beginning and intermediate level Spanish classes, I was trained in the administrative role of Assistant Director of Instructional Technology.I help administer and design our departmental web-based homework initiative, Proyecto Ancla.
I greatly enjoy my work and find teaching to be an extremely fulfilling profession. My field is rich with educational potential; teaching Spanish affords me the opportunity to open students’ eyes to the beauty of language and to the potential for forming authentic connection and understanding between people from different backgrounds. Like professor Sobrer, I strive to create a meaningful but lighthearted atmosphere where my students are encouraged to grow academically and individually. I likewise provide mentorship to students ; I strongly encourage study and travel abroad, and feel no prouder moment than when a student tells me they have decided to pursue a semester or year in a Spanish speaking country. I frequently write letters of recommendation for these students, and also for those applying to medical or other professional schools, those applying to special programs within IU or other universities, and students seeking internship positions. I am proud to have the opportunity to influence students’ education and careers through my role as teacher.
I believe that a fundamental part of this role is to engage myself in lifelong learning. Over the years I have pursued various professional development opportunities to improve my teaching and enhance its effectiveness. I have recently become interested in content-based language instruction and, to my great excitement, am currently working on designing an intermediate-level Spanish language course embedded in the content of environment and sustainability. In the spring of 2016 I received a fellowship from the IU Office of Sustainability to design this course. These funds will allow me to spend the summer of 2016 designing the course, which will be offered for the first time in the spring semester of 2017. I am very excited to be able to combine my interests in Spanish and environmental issues, and I think it will draw in students with similar interests or those who are pursuing a related academic career. One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that the topic and design of the course can lend itself very easily to incorporating service learning, community-based learning, study abroad, or internship abroad components. It is my hope that this course will be an impactful way to offer the same foundational language knowledge regularly provided in intermediate language classes while also allowing students to explore a specific area of interest that may lead to new opportunities in the field. Another ultimate goal of the course is to help students see a practical benefit of Spanish language as it relates to their individual interests, and stimulate them to add a Spanish major or minor. Perhaps this trajectory could lead to students becoming lifelong learners of Spanish, just as I have.
Alumni Notes
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our alumni through different initiatives and contributions that foster the excellence of our department. We are excited to share the updates we have received and look forward to continuing to hear about the endeavors of our alumni.
Please keep in touch! Email: lagaceta@indiana.edu.
Linda L. Elman (BA ’67) “I earned MA and PhD from the University of Chicago, taught high school Spanish for 28 years in Munster, IN, with fellow IU Honors Program alum, Charlene Tsoutsouris. Retired early and joined the faculty of DePauw University for 15 years. Currently launching business, Sí Spain, custom Iberian itineraries, and writing pronunciation guides for Highlights children's magazine. Published and hasn't perished!”
Vicki Mayfield (BA ‘70, MA ’71) “I left IU-Bloomington with a BA and an MA in Spanish under my belt, on my way to become a translator. I set that career goal and achieved it. Then, 5 years later, I discovered something: I really did not like translation as a career and re-thought my goals. I changed direction, got an MBA and sought out those opportunities where Spanish gave me an edge. And, I found them in international banking and technology. When 'right-sizing' and 'ageism' hit corporate America in the 21st century, my husband and I - like many others - added Mandarin to our portfolio of languages. Now, we've spent 7 of the last 10 years in China and Singapore, with new careers and new interests, proving again that learning a language will take you many places you hadn't expected.”
Donna Sabella (BA ’75) “I went on to earn a BSN in nursing, an M.Ed in ESL, an MSN in mental health nursing, a PhD in educational linguistics and a post master's certificate as a psych nurse practitioner. This July I will take on a new position: https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/human-trafficking-expert-donna-sabella. I loved my time at IU and while at UMass I hope to audit some of their Portuguese classes.”
Kathy Cohenour MD (BA ’77) “I have thanked God many times over the years since I graduated with my degree in Spanish for the gift of having been ahead of the curve on seeing the huge increase in Spanish speaking immigrants to the US. I went on to go to medical school and thought I would never really get the chance to use my Spanish skills. But as a physician working in a clinic for low income patients in an urban area I use it every day! At least 1/3 of my patients are Spanish speaking only. Being able to converse without the need for an interpreter is a real bonus. My patients feel more comfortable when they don’t have to explain everything to a third party and I feel like I am getting a more complete understanding of their problems. I have also traveled to Central and South America many times on medical missions. Again, knowing the language and culture has allowed me to be a leader in organizing these efforts.
Thanks IU Department of Spanish and Portuguese!”
Tiago Jones (BA ‘85) “I graduated in 1985 with a degree in Portuguese and French after a year of study at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. I then continued in 1986 with a PhD in Romance Languages at UNC Chapel Hill. It took me longer than expected to complete my dissertation as my father and sister died suddenly and I had to return to Europe to console and help my mother. Finally I completed my defense in 1998. By then I was married with three children and working at a small college n NC. With the completion of my PhD I got a plum job at the University of Puerto Rico and enjoyed four productive and exciting years teaching Portuguese in the Caribbean. As our family grew to five children we decided to return to the mainland, close to my wife's family, where I am now Chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages at Campbell University NC. I am also President of the Association of Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean (APLAAC) and have translated several books and articles from Portuguese and Spanish into English. I teach French, Portuguese and Spanish.”
Vanessa v. Clohessy (née Alexander) (BA ’86) is a partner with the law firm of Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn LLP. She represents local governmental entities including school districts, park districts and municipalities as well as private educational institutions through all phases of civil litigation in judicial and administrative proceedings. Ms. Clohessy has focused her practice on labor and employment disputes, with an emphasis on employee dismissal and defending against discrimination charges. She also counsels and represents clients in matters of civil rights, constitutional law, tax exemption disputes and student discipline. Ms. Clohessy is admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court and regularly practices in the Northern, Central and Southern districts of Illinois federal courts and all levels of the Illinois state courts. Prior to joining the firm in 1998, she practiced for seven years as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Illinois, representing the State, its agencies and employees. She is an avid tennis player and enjoys traveling with her husband, son (12) and daughter (10). Ms. Clohessy graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington with a bachelor's degree in journalism and Spanish and received her law degree in 1990 from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Mark Erdosy (BA ’88) was recently re-elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Lay Ministry. He will serve as the Board Chair for the next two years. Mark continues to work as the Director of the San Damiano Scholars Program for Church Leadership at Marian University-Indianapolis. He is married and he and his wife have two beautiful daughters.
Christopher Winters (BA ’91) is a podiatrist in Indianapolis. Residency director of the podiatry program at St. Vincent Hospital. Sees many Spanish-speaking patients. Married in 2000 with one child born in 2002. Loves to keep up with events in Catalunya after studying Catalan under Prof. Josep Sobrer. Lives in Zionsville, IN with wife Natalie and son Nicolas.
Linda Zee (PhD ‘93) “I've been at Utica College in Utica, NY since 1997. I am about to start my 15th year as department chair. Since graduating I've published 6 articles, given around 25 conference presentations, visited 15+ countries and run 4 marathons. I'm married to a public school science teacher who is about to retire and become a craft brewer, and my current research interests include “la cerveza artesanal" in Latin America.”
Kristin Calvario Suma (BA ’03) “After teaching high school Spanish in the Washington, DC area for 10 years, I am currently teaching at the American International School in Abuja, Nigeria. Our family moved to accompany my husband Matthew Suma (IU BA History '03) to his job at the US Embassy. I was hired to launch and develop the Spanish program at AISA, an international school that had previously only offered French as a modern language. Living and teaching Spanish in a West African nation has been eye-opening and a lifetime opportunity to see the world. Teaching food vocabulary (describing Nigerian food in Spanish) and weather vocabulary (it's always hot here) has been very fun for teacher and students alike.”
Kaley Hendrickson (BA ‘09) “After graduating I spent five years teaching English around Spain. I blogged about my experiences at http://ymuchomas.com/! I ended up marrying a Spaniard, and we just moved back last year to start our lives in Indiana.”
Danny Stofleth (BA ’09) “graduated with a triple major in Spanish, International Studies, and Political Science. As a part of that, I spent a year abroad in Spain. Since then, I obtained an MA in Communication and Rhetoric from Syracuse University, and am in the last year of a PhD program in Communication at the University of Washington, Seattle. Two years ago, I earned a fellowship called the Bonderman which gave me $20,000 to travel the world, unrelated to research! I spent 6 months all over Asia, and 2 months in the Middle East. I spent time in yoga ashrams and Buddhist monasteries in Nepal, India, Thailand, and Cambodia. And I spent my birthday at the only Palestinian brewery in the West Bank (Taybeh). My work has been in the area of "mindfulness," examining its effects on health metrics and interpersonal communication outcomes. After graduation, I plan on working with children who suffer from neurological and developmental disorders such as Tourette's, ADHD, OCD, and ASD.”
Savannah McDermott (BA ’10) “I graduated with a major in Spanish and International Studies in 2010. Right after graduation, I moved to a small town in western Spain, where I lived and taught English for two years. I then moved to Surat Thani in southern Thailand, where I worked for three semesters as an ESL teacher in an elementary school. Homesick for Spain, I took a position in a primary school in Madrid, where I taught for another two years. I now work for Greenheart Travel, a Chicago-based non-profit, where I organize programs sending English speakers to teach ESL around the world!”
Nathaniel Kenninger (BA ‘11) “El agosto pasado me mudé desde Miami a la Ciudad de México por temas del trabajo. Sigo acá, trabajando en el equipo de estrategia para PepsiCo Alimentos México y coordinando eventos con el recién formado grupo de egresados de IU en México. Este septiembre, empezaré la maestría en INSEAD en Francia (¡ahora deseo que hubiera estudiado francés también!) por un año, y después espero regresar a CDMX.”
Curt Ogborn (BA ‘11) “After having studied in your wonderful language department, I actually went on to use my Spanish extensively. From 2011-2014, I moved to Madrid, Spain and taught English at a public high school in Madrid (with the Auxiliares de conversación program) and then later at a private English academy during the school year. During the summers, I had the opportunity to live in Vigo, Spain and worked in the shellfish industry and learned to speak a dialect of Spanish/Galician called Castrapo. Now after having lived in Chicago since 2014, I am pursing the teaching of the Spanish language and English as a second language. Though still waiting on my licensing approval, I have been hired to teach Spanish at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, IL (just north of Chicago) for the coming school year. Your department challenged me on a daily basis and the quality of the instruction in this department has made my language career possible.”
Lindsay M. Reinholt (BA ‘11) is a certified health coach, nutrition expert, speaker, and fitness instructor who lives in Warsaw, Indiana. Formerly food-obsessed and preoccupied by her weight and body, she is now passionate about helping others to overcome their struggles with food and to begin living healthier, happier lives. She has recently released her life-changing book Meant to Eat: A Practical Guide to Developing a Healthy Relationship with Food. In this book, she uncovers the truth about dieting—that it doesn’t really work for long-term weight loss and maintenance—and guides the reader to developing a healthy relationship with food, one that can lead them to effortless weight loss and maintenance, body acceptance, and a whole new level of self-love and compassion. Furthermore, they will learn to enjoy a variety of new foods in a more satisfying and pleasurable way than ever before. You can find Meant to Eat on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble online.
Amy Fuhs (BA '12) “I just completed a global health research fellowship through the National Institutes of Health for which I spent the year in Lima, Peru, working on projects in rehabilitation and trauma quality improvement. The facility with the language and the interest in Latin America that I gained through studying in the department have been a large part of my motivation to pursue a career in global health and allowed me to successfully work with Peruvian collaborators. Further, my experience with the IU's linguistics classes gave me the competence to appropriately translate and transcribe qualitative interviews with hospital personnel. I look forward to continuing to use these skills as a physician both domestically and abroad.”
Maia Kirk (née Eubanks) (BA ’12) “During the spring 2012 semester I had the pleasure of taking S430-The Acquisition of Spanish with Sra. Geeslin, from which I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited. In conjunction with my BA in Spanish, I also received a BS in Microbiology. Since graduation, my career has followed the path of the latter. From 2012-2013 I was enrolled in the Microbiology PhD program at IUB. Unfortunately the program was not the best fit for me, and I subsequently transferred to IUPUI to complete a Master's degree. In August 2015, I received my MS in Biology; currently, I have completed my first year as a PhD student in the same lab there, and will be taking my candidacy/qualifying exams next week. Furthermore, although I pursued a career in a different field, the extensive education I received through the department of Spanish and Portuguese at IUB has made me a highly versatile individual that is effective in being able to successfully converse and have stimulating conversations with graduate students in the soft sciences and humanities; in addition, the foreign language instruction that I received while at IUB will aid me in being a more marketable candidate for job positions in both industrial and academic settings.”
Morris Gevirtz (MA ‘13) “I live in Istanbul, Turkey and work at my own language workshop. We develop language practice opportunities as well as develop language teaching software.
The Master's program has been one of the most formative experiences of my life. Without exaggeration whatsoever, it has shaped how I see the world. The task of learning Turkish and teaching English/Spanish here has been so incredibly fruitful only because of the ideas I learned in the department. Sadly, it is not all roses and baklava. If I ever had a chance to be anything other than a geek, the department sealed my fate. After completing the program I moved to Spain, hoping to live a while in paradise, fact-checking all of the things we learned about leísmo, ceceo, and tapas. However, a 3 month stint is all I was allotted by the EU and the shysters that offered me the job there. I decided that I did not want to go back home and so I moved to Istanbul, Turkey. My plan was to hang out here until the next hiring season in Spain.
Istanbul is a lot like Madrid and Barcelona, except the archaeology is open to anyone willing to climb down a rope into the hippodrome or sneak past a couple of parking lot guards into the subterranean remains of Constantine's Palace. Also libations are expensive, chorizo a bit non-existant and all greenspace mowed over after the last invasion in 1453. But hey, there's kahve galore.
Alas, I have been here for two years -living in a country without relative clauses. Spending your days in a place where copulas are disregarded in the present tense can be quite difficult. But not to worry, they pepper in the gerunds into noun clauses more liberally than IU students drink during Little 5. Don't get me wrong, it’s fun, however, to live in a place where you are legally required to use an evidential ending on verbs, lest you be accused of perjury. I came here to teach, because teaching is the easiest form of underpaid, undervalued job to get. Often I think the person learning most is me. Student errors are as much a window into language as they are into student apathy. Teaching a language which marks grammatical and lexical aspect with prepositions to a people who prefer their aspect marked with grammaticalized verbs-as-endings can be a bit frustrating. But you find a way to explain these things --always keeping in mind Roman Jacobson's words: "Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey."
Perhaps the most beautiful part of living here is the metaphor. Sometimes, the meaning of set phrases and phrasal structures is almost composition in its elegance. Other times, you can see the randomness of history at play in phrases like "May your head be healthy" said with compassion to someone in mourning. It is worth mentioning being a Spanish speaker has been quite handy in learning Turkish: Turkish people are also very confused about passives, reflexives and impersonal structures. Differential marking is for chumps. As a dubiously successful learner of Turkish and a 6 year veteran of the language teaching trenches, I guess the take-home lesson is you can't teach anything. Things are learned, if we are lucky, with the guidance and advice of learning veterans -those people who share a passion for what we are trying to understand or, as they say in Turkish: to appropriate. At IU, I was one such lucky learner.”
Tess Kuntz (BA ‘13) “Since leaving the university, I've held several teaching positions. First, I student taught high school Spanish in my home town of Milan, Indiana. Then, I did my English as a new language student teaching in Costa Rica. Upon my return to the United States, I joined Teach for America, first teaching high school English at a summer school program in the Mississippi Delta, and then teaching high school Spanish in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for one year. After that, I returned to Indiana, where I am now finishing up my second year as an English as a new language teacher in Columbus, Indiana. In August, I plan to return to IU to pursue a Master's degree in Second Language Studies and to serve as a Spanish associate instructor. I also plan to move to a farm in the Bloomington area so I can begin growing food sustainably.”
Rob Bedinghaus (MA ’11, PhD ‘15) “After graduating from IU I moved with my family to Loveland, Ohio and became a financial advisor with Edward Jones. We also had identical twin boys, Micah and Owen, in October, and they joined their older brothers Liam (5 1/2) and Judah (2 1/2). We're keeping very busy!”
Kelly Kuntz (BA ’15) “I'm a 2015 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Global and International Studies. I majored in Spanish and International Studies and minored in Portuguese and Latino Studies. I am currently living in Curitiba, Brazil on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grant. I am working at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, assisting both the “English Without Borders” and Letras programs. In addition, I am working with Education USA and doing research on Brazilian higher education. Hope all is well in Bloomington.”
Meredith Miller (BA ’15) “I had plans to enroll in the accelerated nursing program at IUPUI and am currently in my second semester. I always had dreams to combine my Spanish knowledge with my future nursing career. Since graduation I have taken a medical interpreting class called "Bridging the Gap" at St. Vincent. Upon completion of this class I began interpreting as a volunteer at Trinity Free Clinic in Carmel. I continue to interpret a couple times a month and I work with patients in the women's clinic, dental clinic, eye screening, and immunization clinics. I absolutely love the experience and the patients I meet. I love the relationship I develop with the patients and the mutual trust that exists. I love being able to use my Spanish knowledge for a greater cause. Upon graduation I want to travel to Spanish speaking countries to provide medical care to at- risk populations. After two years of working as a nurse I would like to go back to get my nurse practitioner license so that I can continue to offer healthcare on a greater level to the Spanish populations internationally as well as locally.”
