About the Orange County Team
Peijuan Cao
您好! HELLO!
I‘m from China.
Peijuan Cao is currently a third-year Ph.D. student at College of Education with a specialization in Reading and Literacy Education at University of Florida (UF). She is originally from China and has been living in the U.S. for five years. Peijuan is enthusiastic about teaching and interested in research on language acquisition and literacy development, especially with bilingual/ESOL students. Peijuan obtained her master degree in English Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU), where she taught English writing as well as Chinese as a foreign language to undergraduate students for two years. Peijuan used to be an ESL teacher in China and she also tutored bilingual kids Chinese/English in the U.S. She enjoys working with learners with various linguistic and cultural background. Currently, she is an instructor of a literacy assessment and practicum class in the Unified Elementary Pro-teach program at UF. In her spare time, Peijuan enjoys yoga, table tennis, reading, cooking and traveling.
Riya Chakraborty
নমস্কার! HELLO!
I’m from India.
Riya Chakraborty is a first-year Doctoral student in the College of Education at the University of Florida (UF) in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis on ESOL/Bilingual Education. She is originally from India and is multilingual herself. She obtained her triple Masters in English literature, Education and English Language Teaching from the University of Calcutta in India and gained valuable experiences as a Teacher Educator by teaching English as a second language to the non-native speakers. She is an enthusiast and had been actively attached to a few universities in India as an Assistant Professor, examiner, scrutineer and guest lecturer for more than four years. Presently she is also gaining work experiences as an Education Assistant in the Florida Museum of Natural History at UF along with being a Substitute teacher at PK Yonge Developmental & Research School and exploring opportunities to grab the best educational, research and work experiences out of it by contributing towards it at the same time.
Mai Elkhashab
!مرحبا HELLO!
I’m from Egypt.
Mai Elkhashab is a graduate student in the College of Education at University of Florida. She is seeking her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with emphasis in ESOL/Bilingual education. Back in Egypt, Mai got her Bachelor’s degree in Language and Literature with an emphasis in Linguistics and Translation. Since arrival to the United States, she was keen to get familiar with the American education system. Hence, in her pursuit to delve into practicum and to build networks, Mai volunteered at Baby Gator child development and research center. Furthermore, she worked as a substitute teacher at Alachua County Public schools. To add theoretical knowledge to her classroom experience, Mai decided to earn her degree in bilingual education which she regards as a prolific experience and a valuable addition to her career and knowledge. On a more personal level, Mai has passion for learning languages; she speaks Arabic and English, in addition to some background in French. As for hobbies, she is a yoga enthusiast, an avid reader and a shopping maniac.