Meet Our Students

Hometown: Nghe An, Vietnam
Major: TESOL
High School: Do Luong 2
Date started at SMC: Fall 2018
SMC Program: Graduate

About: Tam, a Fulbright Scholar from Vietnam, is expected to graduate in 2020 with a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL). Prior to coming to the U.S. to pursue his graduate degree, Tam taught English for 16 years at different middle schools in his hometown of Do Luong, Nghe An Vietnam. He also worked as a key teacher trainer and organized various workshops on teaching methodology for his colleagues. He was assigned to work as a supervisor, examiner, and consultant for middle-school teachers of English and middle-school students by the Bureau of Education and Training of Do Luong district, and the Education and Training Department of Nghe An province.

Hometown: Landstuhl, Germany
Major: Psychology and Elementary Education
High School: Kaiserslautern American High School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2016
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Katie is enrolled in the Honors Program and is a member of Psi Chi, the National Honors Society for Psychology. She also belongs to the Founders Society and gives campus tours to prospective students. In addition, Katie is a member of the Random Acts of Kindness Club, and participates in programs through the Adventure Sports Center. In 2019, Katie was awarded a Trustee Scholar Summer Research Grant to evaluate inclusive and alternative classrooms for special education.

Hometown: Lhasa, Tibet, PRC
Major: Statistics and Biochemistry (double major)
High School: High School Affiliated with Fudan University
Date started at SMC: Fall 2016
SMC Programs: Undergraduate, Academic English, Intensive English

About: After completing the Academic English Program, Pemakyi was invited to join the Saint Michael’s College Honors Program. Students must have a grade point average of at least 3.6 to qualify for this program. The Honors Program provides unique opportunities and challenges for our highest-achieving students and is only available to a limited group of students. Pemakyi studied abroad in the Czech Republic. She also works as a Teaching Assistant for the Chemistry Department.

Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela
Major: Business Administration
High School: Palmer-Trinity School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2016
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Andres is a member of the men’s varsity soccer team and was named to the Northeast-10 Weekly Honor Roll in October 2016 and October 2017 for his outstanding athletic performance. He also earned a spot on the Northeast-10 Conference All-Conference third team (2017-2018). During the 2016-2017 season, he was named to the NE10 All-Rookie team. Rivas is only the third player in program history to receive both honors.

Hometown: Jar, Norway
Major: Economics
High School: Persbraathen Videregaende Skole
Date started at SMC: Fall 2016
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Anna was named to the Saint Michael’s Dean’s List for the fall 2016 semester. She is a member of the women’s varsity alpine ski team and qualified for NCAA National Collegiate Skiing Championships in spring 2017. Anna was also recognized by the U.S. Collegiate Ski Coaches Association and named to the All-Academic Ski Team twice. This honor is awarded to students who have a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA and who compete in a NCAA regional championship. She is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society that recognizes athletes with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.7. In addition, Anna raced in 2017 post-season competition. During the 2018 alpine ski season, Anna became the first Purple Knight woman to qualify three times for the NCAA Championship.

Hometown: Fuzhou, China
Major: Theatre
High School: No. 4 Senior High School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2015
SMC Programs: Undergraduate, Academic English

About: Jeremy was named to the College’s Dean’s List. He works as a Student Assistant for the Applied Linguistics Department. In 2016, he took first place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Society’s talent show. Jeremy performs magic at different campus events. In addition, he played Charles Dickens and other characters in the fall 2017 main stage production of Mill Girls.

Hometown: Guildford, United Kingdom
Major: Exploratory
High School: Guildford High School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2018

About: Betsy is enrolled in the Honors Program and has been named to the Dean’s List each semester. She works as a writing coach in the SMC Writing Center, and as a tutor for philosophy and statistics. Last winter she learned how to alpine ski through the Adventure Sports Center, and is looking forward to learning how to snowboard. Betsy was accepted onto the MOVE (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts) trip to Buffalo, New York, where she will work with middle-school students at Catholic Central School.

Hometown: Dakar, Senegal
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
High School: Gaston Berger University
Date started at SMC: Fall 2016
SMC Programs: Graduate

About: Mouhamadou was a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Michael’s College. Before coming to the U.S., he was an English teacher at Thiaroye High School and an online tutor at Université Virtuelle du Sénégal. Mouhamadou was a French peer tutor and member of the French Club at Saint Michael’s.

Hometown: Samara, Russia
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
College/University: Samara State University
Date started at SMC: Fall 2017
SMC Programs: Graduate

About: Iuliia, a Fulbright Scholar from Russia, graduated in 2019 with a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Before coming to the U.S., Iuliia taught English and Spanish at Samara State University. She also worked as an advertising manager in the sales department at Subaru Centre Samara. Iuliia presented a talk on Russian stereotypes, history, and culture at the first International Student Speaker series at SMC. Iuliia defended her thesis on “Personal Narratives: Language Development through Orality of Refugee-Background Youth” which she presented at the Northern New England TESOL Conference in 2018, and the TESOL 2019 International Convention and English Language EXPO Master’s Student Forum in Atlanta. In 2019, she was nominated to give a graduate-student address at the Commencement ceremony. Currently, Iuliia is pursuing her doctorate at the University of Massachusetts.

Hometown: Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Major: Engineering
High School: College Boboto
Date started at SMC: Spring 2014
SMC Programs: Undergraduate, Academic English, Intensive English

About: Bernard was named to the College’s Dean’s List. He worked as a Student Assistant for the Applied Linguistics Department. As an Undergraduate Research Assistant, Bernard worked on electrical engineering research and development projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. He presented a talk on “Packetized Energy Management: Asynchronous and Anonymous Coordination of Thermostatically Controlled Loads” at the Mathematics Department’s colloquium. Bernard was part of the team that studied methods of managing the power consumption of thermostatically controlled loads, such as water heaters, during peak hours to reduce the electrical load on power plants, thereby maintaining a quality of service favorable to consumers. Bernard also served as secretary of the Diversity Coalition.

Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia
Major: Accounting
High School: Westchester Country Day School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2013
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Bruno completed an accounting internship and co-presented on his experience at the poster session during Saint Michael’s College’s 2017 Academic Symposium. Bruno was a member of the men’s varsity basketball team. He was named to the Dean’s List for multiple semesters.

Hometown: Jinan, Shandong, China
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
University: Shandong Normal University
Date started at SMC: Fall 2018
SMC Programs: Graduate – joint degree with Shandong Normal University

About: Zhongtang Wei, better known as Po at Saint Michael’s College, graduated from Shandong Normal University in China with a bachelor’s degree in English where he also started the joint-degree MATESOL graduate program which he completed at Saint Michael’s. He has taught English to middle school, high school, and university students. Zhongtang is a world traveler and has visited multiple countries including Canada and Russia. He loves English and wants to become a more qualified teacher capable of teaching English to Chinese students in the right and scientific way. At Saint Michael’s College, he won the Martin Luther King Jr. Society poetry slam for his poem “Somewhere in My Heart.” Zhongtang presented his talk “Comparing Chinese and American College Life and Cultures” during the Global Conversation Luncheon Series at SMC. He was invited to give the presentation at the University of Vermont as well. In addition, Zhongtang was a tutor for students in the Intensive English Program.

Hometown: Coquitlam, BC, Canada
Major: Engineering
High School: Centennial Secondary School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2014
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Nicholas was named to the Saint Michael’s Dean’s List for multiple semesters and was included on the Northeast-10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll a total of six times. He also was inducted into Pi Mu Epsilon, the honor society for mathematics. Nicholas was an assistant captain and a forward on the men’s ice hockey team. He was selected for a Northeast-10 Conference Academic All-Conference honor for the winter 2018 athletic season. He was also named to the NE10 Championship All-Championship Team. In addition, Nicholas twice earned a Division 2 Athletics Directors Association Academic Achievement Award, and was an American Hockey Coaches Association All American Scholar and New England Hockey Conference All-Academic once each.

Hometown: Lamastre, France
Majors: Political Science and Economics
High School: School of Trades, Ambroise Croizat
Date started at SMC: Fall 2014
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Meggane was named to the Saint Michael’s Dean’s List for multiple semesters. In addition, she was inducted into four academic honor societies; Chi Alpha Sigma (National College Athlete Honor Society), Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics), Phi Beta Kappa (liberal arts studies), and Pi Sigma Alpha (political science). Meggane was also recognized by the U.S. Collegiate Ski Coaches Association and named to the All-Academic Ski Team each of her four years competing. This honor is awarded to students who have a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA and who compete in a NCAA regional championship. She completed an internship with the SMC Athletics Department. She was co-captain of the women’s varsity alpine ski team. In 2016 and 2018, Meggane qualified for the NCAA National Collegiate Skiing Championships. In 2017, she raced in post-season competition. Meggane appeared with her brother Guillaume, in the Fall/Winter 2016-17 issue of Saint Michael’s College Magazine. Meggane also is a graduate of the Athletics Department’s Purple Knight Leadership Academy (PKLA), a program aimed at providing tools and developing skills of second- and third-year students whom have been identified by their coaches as having leadership potential. Meggane graduated in 2018, and now lives in Barcelona, Spain. There she works at Degusta Box as a market research associate for the French market.

Hometown: Ceará, Brazil
Major: Psychology
High School: Farias Brito University School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2014
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: In spring 2017 Pedro was inducted into Psi Chi, the national psychology honors society. He also was named to the Dean’s List for multiple semesters. Pedro worked on campus as a Student Assistant with the Applied Linguistics Department, and was selected to join the Residence Life staff as a Resident Assistant. He volunteered with Knight Safe, an outreach and programming initiative launched by the Office of Public Safety, that provides free rides/walking escorts to students in the evenings. Previously, he was a Student Ambassador and wrote a blog about college life.

Hometown: Medina, Saudi Arabia
Major: Chemistry
High School: Khalid bin Alwalid High School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2012
SMC Programs: Undergraduate, Academic English, Intensive English

About: Saad was awarded a summer research grant from the Office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs to study Quantitative Analysis of the Nutritional Value of Date Fruits from the United States and Saudi Arabia. In addition, Saad co-presented at a poster session held during the Saint Michael’s 2017 Academic Symposium. He was also named to the Saint Michael’s College dean’s list.

Hometown: Sydney, Australia
Major: Psychology
High School: Rice Memorial High School
Date started at SMC: Fall 2013
SMC Programs: Undergraduate

About: Tomi co-presented the findings from her psychology practicum during the 2017 Academic Symposium at Saint Michael’s. She was also co-captain of the women’s varsity basketball team. She appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of Saint Michael’s College Magazine.