Katharine Schneider retires

Katharine Schneider, known to 25 years of ELI students as “Mrs. Schneider” but “Kathy” to her colleagues, retired as ELI’s associate director in March.

Students and staff tell Kathy Schneider "Thanks for the memories."

Her move to Washington, DC, with husband Jerry, a retired UD professor, had been a long wished-for goal—one of many which Kathy attained over her lengthy career.

Like many ESL professionals, Schneider was first drawn to foreign languages. She majored in German in college and taught German and English on Long Island for three years before moving to Newark when she married Jerry, then an assistant professor in the political science department. After becoming interested in ESL, Kathy took a tutoring position in 1981 in the very new English Language Institute. Shortly thereafter, she became a fulltime classroom teacher and associate director in 1987.

In 1986, Kathy and ELI director Scott Stevens were asked by the university to develop the international teaching assistant training program. The program is designed to prepare international graduate students for their instructional responsibilities in terms of language, cultural and teaching skills. She coordinated the first program in 1986 and continued in this role for the next 16 years.

Kathy Schneider and husband Jerry enjoy the roast at her retirement party in March.

In the classroom, Schneider devoted most of her attention to preparing university-bound students for the rigors of academic English. Realizing there was a gap in suitable materials to prepare international students to understand university lectures and participate in classroom discussions, she and then ELI colleague Sandra McCollum authored the textbook It’s Academic in 1991.

Schneider developed her interest in teacher training, co-writing grant proposals and coordinating a number of programs, starting with the Central American Teacher Training Program in January 1991.

She was a frequent presenter at professional conferences and keynoted the national English teachers’ conference in Honduras in 1993. As an administrator, Schneider developed the Institute’s first electronic database and played a key role in coordinating ELI’s successful efforts in 2000 to become one of the nation’s first intensive English programs to be accredited.

Since Kathy preferred to keep a low profile, it was with the greatest of secrecy that faculty and staff, led by director Scott Stevens, prepared to celebrate her departure—rehearsing skits that spoofed Kathy’s well-known quirks, pinning farewells from students and faculty to a blue and gold banner, and cutting and pasting Kathy’s rare photo onto every slide of a Powerpoint presentation of key events during Kathy’s years of service.

At the reception at Vita Nova on March 15, with her colleagues, friends and family gathered to honor her, Kathy graciously endured the spotlight which she normally shunned.

“I could not imagine more interesting and fulfilling work than that which I did for the English Language Institute,” she said.

“I am truly going to miss it, especially the students.”