HCC Intensive English instructor selected for prestigious teaching fellowship

Jul 28, 2015

When the Fall 2015 Semester starts, Dr. Trinidad Hernandez, an Intensive English instructor at Houston Community College (HCC), will be absent from class. Instead, he will be in Sri Lanka training local English teachers. The U.S. Department of State has selected Dr. Hernandez for a 10-month Fellowship project at the National Institute of Education in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Hernandez is one of only 165 U.S. citizens selected for the 2015-2016 English Language Fellow (ELF) Program, a premiere opportunity for highly qualified TESOL professionals to enact meaningful and sustainable changes in the way that English is taught abroad.

“Sri Lanka truly represents the beauty and promise of developing countries in the world today,” said Hernandez. “I look forward to learning a great deal from Sri Lanka and other countries in this fascinating region.”

Dr. Hernandez currently works at the HCC Gulfton Center, but previously taught in Asia and Europe for many years. He considers Houston home and said, “My extended time abroad deepens the connection I have to communities in the most ethnically diverse city in the U.S. I love seeing these communities converge in my Intensive English classes at HCC.”

English Language Fellows are counted among the more than 50,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. The Fellow program is administered by the Center for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University.

To learn more about the Intensive English program at HCC, visit hccs.edu/programs.