Research Writer Interview With Jeff

To better answer this first question I think it prudent to begin with a brief overview of my life history. I grew up in a suburb of Oklahoma City called Moore and spent the majority of my childhood there. Upon graduating high school I applied to and was accepted by Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. As the seminary was rather small we, the students, also attended Lakeland Community College and John Carroll University. After receiving my BA in Spanish (with a minor in Philosophy) I headed off to Incheon, South Korea, where I lived, worked, and studied for the last three and a half years. This past July I returned to Oklahoma and enrolled in the local Tech to begin classes in Networking so that I can transition into the IT field.

This is perhaps one of my favorite subjects to write about, not just because of my stellar grades and academic achievements but also because of the diverse environments in which I have studied. During undergrad I spent a summer in Mexico and Japan. Mexico was perhaps the most familiar and easiest culture to live/study in because at the time I lived in a house with Mexican immigrants in Oklahoma during the summer/winter vacations. Japan, though a bit harder to function in, was a great opportunity to experience Asian culture first hand. In both countries I attended language and culture classes. About a year after I went to live and work in Korea I entered a TESOL certification program at Sookmyung University in Seoul. I enjoyed my time there even though the program consisted of taking 15 credit hours in one semester while working full time at my place of employment. About a year later I entered Sogang University's Graduate school of English Linguistics. I spent two full semesters there before having to come back to America and, although I did not finish my MA, I still appreciated the opportunity to study a subject I was and still am very interested in.

Among all the various writers out there, few will have the same experiences and knowledge as myself. Besides having lived in foreign countries and among foreign cultures the majority of my young adult life, I have also taught writing classes in a high school setting. Most of the writing I taught was very TOEFL oriented as many of my students planned to study abroad. Week after week I would teach around 8 contact hours of TOEFL writing and spend around 2 more hours grading and revising the work produced by my students. In the Fall of each year I would spend time helping students compose essays for university admissions both in the U.S. and Korea. In graduate school I often helped my classmates revise their own essays and I have also spent time editing translations from Korean to English.

I have many plans for the future. For the immediate future I will attend classes and work. In about a year or two I will enter the IT field with either my CCNA or CCNP (networking certificates) and begin to prepare for graduate school in the United States. Although I have studied linguistics and teaching ESL I want to apply to Speech Language Pathology and study augmentative and alternative systems of communication. I am interested in using AAC to better the lives of autists as well as use it as a tool to assess the intelligence of certain species of higher functioning animals. The reason I am entering IT is, aside from the fact that I love working with computers and networks, so that I can make enough money to support myself as well as fund my own research (because I dislike the politics involved in applying for grants/government funding). My ideal job is any job that will allow me to make a decent wage while at the same time being able to pursue my research interests.