Profiles

Administrator Profile: Joe Matterer

Cervantes said, “To be fortunate in the beginning is everything.” In terms of career, ELI’s associate director Joe Matterer is a man who was fortunate to find his calling early in life, and he has spent the last 27 years developing and refining his skills as an ESL professional.

Joe Matterer

Joe completed his undergraduate work in English and philosophy at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. By the time he had received his master’s degree in linguistics with a specialization in TEFL from Ohio University, he had discovered his true passion, and he landed a job immediately as an ESL teacher. Joe and his wife, Mary, who had previously spent three years in Thailand with the Peace Corps, traveled to Ben Gazi, Libya, where they briefly taught English to university medical students.

Because of political instability in the region, they soon returned to the United States, where they taught ESL at private language schools in the western states. Joe first worked with Saudi Airlines employees at the Air Force base in Roswell, New Mexico, a place famous for a purported alien space ship crash. Their next assignment was to work with European students at Redlands University in southern California. From there, the couple moved to Bellingham, Washington, where Joe first gained administrative experience coordinating special programs.

Joe moved his family to Delaware in 1983, first to take a job as director of a small ESL program at Wesley College in Dover. In 1986 he started teaching for the English Language Institute when that program still occupied a small house on Amstel Avenue, across the street from Smith Hall. Scott Stevens was the interim director of the Institute at that time, and Katherine Schneider, who later became associate director, also worked there. At that point in its history, ELI had a small student body of about 50 mostly Asian and Middle Eastern students.

Through the years, Joe’s responsibilities and skills have grown along with the Institute. He is involved in teacher training and the UD International Teaching Assistant (ITA) program. Since 1988, he has represented the University of Delaware by traveling to many nations, including Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela. He was promoted to assistant director in 1994 and later, in 2005, to his current position as associate director of the ELI program.

Matterer is a devoted family man. He and his wife, Mary, have raised three children, all of whom are currently pursuing university studies. Still, much of Joe’s energy has been directed into his profession and the students under his charge. Commenting on his work at ELI, Joe said, “This type of program provides a really good opportunity to meet so many interesting people. Through sharing this educational experience with them, I have the opportunity to learn much about them and to be enriched by their cultures.”

Teacher profile: Mary Beth Worrilow

Mary Beth Worrilow

If life were a business, Mary Beth Worrilow would have quite a solid résumé. The Educational Background section would list her earning a bachelor of science degree in business administration and a bachelor of arts in Spanish, both from Gettysburg College, and a master’s in Spanish peninsular literature from the University of Delaware. In addition, she is a soon-to-be recipient of a master’s in TESL from the University of Delaware.

In the section called Professional Experience, there would be evidence of a variety of teaching experiences spanning more than 20 years, including 15 years teaching in UD’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literature as an instructor of Spanish to undergraduate students. In 1988, Mary Beth came aboard the ELI faculty on a part-time basis, teaching during summer and winter sessions. Since 2000, she has been teaching at ELI fulltime, mostly in the business English courses, and she was granted full-time permanent faculty status in 2005.

As impressive as the résumé would read thus far, it would not have yet cast any light on who Mary Beth is as a person or how her students and colleagues view her as a teacher. Résumés are, by their nature, one-dimensional. Those who know Mary Beth best might use “multi-dimensional” to describe her. When asked to describe their colleague and friend, some used the words passionate, creative, dedicated, funny, giving, perceptive, energetic and hardworking. One of her greatest joys is teaching and giving her students the tools to enrich their lives.

If given the opportunity, under the résumé heading Professional Skills, her students might say that she is able to: 1) teach in a way that makes you want to show up for class, 2) make learning incredibly fun, 3) make learning useful in the “real world” by requiring now what the world will require later and 4) care sincerely about her students’ personal lives. And the list would continue.

Mary Beth teaches her business English students that in the United States what is normally not included on a résumé is information about one’s personal life. Nevertheless, if we were to ask Mary Beth about what matters most to her, very little, if anything, would come before her personal life. When asked about what’s most important, Mary Beth said, “My family and the privilege of raising four sons. Being a mom is an adventure like no other. It just gets better and better with each day!”

Although her résumé continues to grow, Mary Beth would say, “It’s the quality, not the quantity, of what we do that matters.” A very conscientious teacher, she inspires her students as well as those who know her personally to “do your best with the gifts that you have and to share with others every day.”

Tutor profile: Dave Cassling

Dave Cassling

Of all the veteran tutors in ELI’s Tutoring Center, there is one who always sports Western style belts. Made of cowhide with ornate silver buckles and studs, the belts are unusual in Delaware. But not in Arizona and New Mexico, where Dave Cassling spent nine years. Dave and wife Margaret were teachers at a Navajo Indian reservation school—he in high school and she in elementary school. That was one of many long stops Dave has made on his journeys.

In fact, Dave and his family have traveled and lived in several places, both in the United States and abroad. After graduating from Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he majored in English and theater, Dave was sent to Asia for two years in the Army. His trumpet playing skills got him stationed near Tokyo, Japan, as a member of the US Army band. Later, after teaching in the West, Dave and Margaret came east to Pennsylvania so that Dave could work with his brother at a family public relations firm. After another two-year stint in Arizona in the early 90s, where Margaret earned a master’s degree in education at Northern Arizona State University in Flagstaff, Margaret started teaching at ELI. Dave followed as a tutor about 10 years ago, after working at a bank. He has also tutored and taught in ELI’s International Teaching Assistants program for three years where, he said, the graduate students are “a charming, fun and motivated group.” Recently, he has begun coordinating cultural activities for special programs.

Today Dave occasionally plays trumpet in a jazz quartet. Besides music, Dave has many other skills and interests. He collects toys and games from the 1950s, can identify any stone used in jewelry and recently played the part of a teacher called Mr. Monopoly in an independent movie made by his son-in-law.

Dave enjoys tutoring at ELI because it provides an opportunity to concentrate on students’ individual problems. “The Tutoring Center offers an exciting, valid approach to second language education,” he says.

(See Dave’s “Ode to tutors” in this newsletter.)