Spotlight

Grace is from Kunming, a beautiful place that is called the Spring city in the Southern part of China. In 1984 Grace graduated from Kunming Teacher’s Normal College and received her first bachelor’s degree in teaching Chinese literature. She taught Chinese literature at Kunming 29th of 1994 Grace moved to the United State and worked as a manager’s assistant at Winthrop House Condominium Inc. She received her second bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies at Towson University in Maryland. Currently Grace is a Chinese instructor at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Ridgeland Mississippi, and she teaches grades 7 though 12 since 2007. In addition, Grace is a Chinese instructor of Startalk Program that she teaches at University of Mississippi each summer. school in Kunming. In the Fall.

Emmy Luo was born in Wushun city, in Liaoning province, China. She moved from Changde, Huhan province to Utah, 19 years ago so that her husband could complete a PHD in Physics at the University of Utah. Her family has lived near the Great Salt Lake for all of that time.

Emmy has been a Chinese teacher for 15 years. The first 10 years she taught at a private Chinese school. She has taught at West High for the past 5 years. Currently West high has about 140 students learning Chinese. They are from 9th grade to AP/IB level. Emmy believes it is important to provide her students with many meaningful exposures in order to help them solidify their language.

Kuo, Lu Hsiu-Lien 

 KKuo, Lu Hsiu-Lien was born in Taiwan where she later received formal training as an elementary school teacher in Taiwan Taipei Women's Teacher College, and taught elementary school children. Since moving to the US in 1983, Kuo, Lu Hsiu-Lien has taught Chinese Mandarin and Chinese culture to both Chinese heritage students and English adults for over fifteen years.

Ms. Hsui-Lien completed a Master of Curriculum and Instruction and English as Second Language (ESL) at Arizona State University in 2002, and has taught Mandarin Chinese in three Chandler School District’s high schools (including Hamilton High School) since 2008. Ms. Hsiu-Lien is also certified to teach Chinese K-12 & dual enrollment college courses. Ms. Hsiu-Lien experiences as a language teacher have enabled her to interact with her students while continuing to learn from each other and grow together. 

Mrs. Smetanick was born and raised in Shanghai, China. She moved to the U.S. for college and graduated with her MBA from Arizona State University. Mrs. Smetanick received a superb rating for her Mandarin Chinese proficiency and is certified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Mrs. Smetanick believes in developing positive habits such as thinking and communicating with clarity and precision, persisting, and striving for accuracy. These habits of mind will help shape our students into future leaders.

T. Dori Huang is from Chiayi, Taiwan. She got her graduate degrees in political science from National Taiwan University, Columbia University, and Duke University, and worked as a piano teacher, policy analyst, and college lecturer before relocating to Utah. She earned a degree in world languages with a secondary teaching license from the University of Utah, specializing in Chinese linguistics, second language acquisition, and pedagogy. She is currently associated with the Canyons School District, teaching in two IB schools, one middle school (IB MYP program) and one high school (IB diploma program), and Canyons Virtual High School. She teaches Chinese 1-4, AP, and all three levels of IB Chinese, with about 200 students ranging from grade 6 to 12. In addition to fostering a balanced growth in learners’ communicative competence, believing that learning a foreign language is the key to broaden one’s worldview and knowledge horizon, she is committed to develop students’ literacy proficiency from the first day of Chinese 1.

Chiwei Lin is the curriculum coordinator of the Chinese language and the future program for the Gahanna-Jefferson School District; she oversees the district's Chinese language curriculum, instruction and professional development. She directs Chinese language summer day camp and coordinates student and administrator exchanges with schools in China. She also serves as the curriculum and assessment consultant for Chinese curriculum at the Ohio Department of Education and Ohio State University.

Jiang Wu, born and raised in China, received his doctoral degree from Tianjin. The city of Tianjin is the third most populated city in China and originated its name from the literal meaning of “The Ferry Site of Emperor”. Besides his love for Chinese literature and history, Jiang is also very active and loves playing sports. He played college basketball back in the days and later on in his career, he coached basketball and soccer in schools where he taught various subjects. Inspired by childhood interests, since 2009, he has been teaching all levels of Chinese at Plano ISD.

Xinyan Liu, a very experienced foreign language teacher, has been teaching at the college level since 1985. Having majored in foreign languages, she was able to leverage her own learning experiences and translate them into effective teaching methods. Later on, she received her master's degree of secondary education after immigrating to the United States. Having taught foreign languages for more than 20 years in colleges both in the United States and China, she quickly realized the importance of high school educations in the U.S. and she has decided to focus on helping students build a solid fundamental foundation for foreign languages. Throughout her high school teaching careers, many of her non-heritage students were able to find interests in this subject and decided to further explore in this area by choosing Chinese as their major in College. She has always enjoyed teaching and her enjoyment will continue into the future.