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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe position, which began in September 2021, has brought Kathleen\u2019s passion for language from her home base in Oregon to Nicaragua, where she is currently conducting weekly virtual workshops with in-service teachers through mid-December. While participating in the program has been her goal since learning of its existence, according to Kathleen, her sense of being called to empower others through language learning goes back to her time as an undergraduate at Oregon State\u2019s Honors College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raised in Oregon, Kathleen earned her honors bachelor\u2019s degree in German from OSU\u2019s College of Liberal Arts in 2007, during which time she wrote her thesis on the vocabulary use of exchange students in comparison to those who hadn\u2019t studied abroad. After graduating from OSU, Kathleen earned her master\u2019s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages at Portland State University, and since then, she has held positions with a number of organizations, including the International Baccalaureate and Rosetta Stone. Throughout, her focus has been on curriculum design, materials development and teaching English as an additional language at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her honors experience \u2014 and thesis project in particular \u2014 left an enduring impact on her. By the time she enrolled in her master\u2019s program, she had no doubt that she could meet the high standards of an academically demanding institution. \u201cI felt like I had been through this before when I got to grad school,\u201d she says. \u201cIt made everything seem more approachable.\u201d The process of partnering with a mentor, conducting original research and interpreting her findings, she says, prepared her for the many educational and professional endeavors that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cAs soon as I knew it existed, I knew I wanted to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Her work has provided her opportunities to travel across Asia and Europe over the course of the last decade, scratching the itch to teach and travel she\u2019s had since participating in an OSU-affiliated study abroad experience in Germany as an undergraduate. \u201cDuring the trip, I thought, I want to be the person teaching<\/em> exchange students, because it is life-changing.\u201d Her goal at the time was to help students improve their English so they could go on to attend university, and her experience in Germany quickly became the foundation on which she built her skills as an educator. \u201cSometimes I feel like I learned German for empathy,\u201d she says. \u201cIt informs me. Now I know exactly what it’s like to learn a language.\u201d After graduating from Portland State, Kathleen went on to teach at the very university in Germany she attended as an honors student. \u201cI was in exactly the same building I was in as a student. It felt like it all came full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Kathleen is part of a select group of English Language Specialists with the U.S. Department of States\u2019 Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The program, which began in 1991, supports specialists who provide training to teachers around the world, and there have been only 800 specialists in its 30-year history. Kathleen’s position has connected her with the Centro Cultural Nicarag\u00fcense Norteamericano, or CCNN, to help them find ways to effectively utilize technology, 21st century skills and communicative language teaching \u2014 particularly in the age of COVID. \u201cThe pandemic affected everyone from all over the world. I am working to improve their practice so they can meet the needs of their students during these times,\u201d she says. \u201cSome teachers there are brand new, and some are experienced. We all honestly learn from each other \u2014 it\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflecting on her time as an undergraduate, Kathleen credits much of her success to her Honors College experience, which encouraged her to look at the future with a wider lens. \u201cOne class I took was on translation, but it wasn\u2019t just about the words \u2014 it was about the bigger processes of translation and what it means to translate,\u201d she says. To this day, Burrows still applies concepts learned in her honors courses when teaching language skills, and she looks back at her time in the HC with a deep sense of gratitude, sharing that \u201cyou will use everything you learn\u201d at OSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Kathleen\u2019s position with the virtual program ends in December, she will continue her work at the International Baccalaureate, with no plans to let her ever-evolving career reach a plateau. Looking ahead, she hopes to continue sharing her love of language and passion for teaching with educators and students across the globe, both in person and virtually. \u201cI love helping teachers; it\u2019s so exciting to see them develop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By: Megan Sherman, Student Writer and Adriana Fischer, Media and Communications Representative<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The path to Kathleen Burrows\u2019 dream job has spanned thousands of miles, from Oregon to Germany, to Albania and beyond, crossing oceans and cultures. At each step along the way, the Oregon State Honors College alumna has worked to provide students and teachers alike with the language skills needed to achieve success in school and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11853,"featured_media":7438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,645351,82,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-alumni-and-friends","category-features","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6723"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8590,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions\/8590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}