Admissions Counselor Sedia Mentee Dennis: introduction

Sedia Mentee Dennis is Admissions Counselor for both the Programs in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management (PIM) and the Master of Art in Teaching Program (MAT)

Hello! My name is Sedia, and I am an admissions counselor for the Master of Art in Teaching Program, what we call the MAT Program. I am also the admissions counselor for the International Education (Low-Residency) Program, or IE Low-Res, one of our Programs in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management.

I first heard about SIT during my search for study abroad programs when I was an undergraduate at The Evergreen State College. I remember debating between an SIT study abroad program and a program through the Center for Global Education. I ended up studying through the latter program because it more specifically addressed my area of study at Evergreen, but I never forgot the little graduate school in Vermont with courses that focused on creating a more just society.

After studying abroad in Namibia, graduating from Evergreen, and then working in Namibia for a year, life took me to Tanzania, East Africa. It was in Tanzania that I began aggressively searching for a graduate school that fit me, one that focused on creating a more just society and would help prepare me to use my passion for teaching to positively impact the world. Among all of the other graduate programs of its kind that I researched, SIT’s Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Program was wonderfully distinct.

I attended SIT during the 2004-2005 academic year and spent those nine months on campus engaging with some of the most passionate, knowledgeable, thoughtful, and creative teachers I have ever met. With their support and confidence in my newly acquired knowledge and skills, I completed my course work at SIT and immediately began teaching English at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where I taught for two years before teaching in Winterberg, South Africa for five months. And now here I am back at SIT, not as student but as a graduate admissions counselor (and sometimes substitute teacher in the MAT Program) because I believe in SIT and the people here, and because I enjoy being a part of the progressive and transformational education that SIT offers.

Tags: - World Learning, MAT, Prog in Intercultural Serv Lead and Mgt, Sedia Mentee Dennis, SIT