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Casey Dowdell, BSW alumna, recently received her TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of Other Languages) Certificate and is now teaching English to Kindergarten students in Thailand. As an undergraduate student, Dowdell interned at the Karen Slattery Educational Research Center for Child Development under the direction of Lydia Bartram, BSW and MSW alumna and Director of the Slattery Center.

“Without my internship, I do not feel that I would be prepared or driven to take on this challenge and journey,” Dowdell said. “In my short four months [at Slattery], those children made a life-long impact. It was overwhelming to see how much dedication is put in as a team to shape the future.  It helped me find this spark inside of me that I never knew was there.”

Dowdell and Bartram are now partnering to start a pen pal exchange program between their classes, since both groups of children are learning to write English. “This is an authentic way to support learning for all while also creating opportunities for sharing across cultures,” Bartram said.

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