NSU Grows its Cross-cultural Community in Tampa

Alberto Marino, ITEP program recruiter in Tampa, (far right) with some of the students in the first ITEP class in Tampa.

NSU's Student Educational Center in Tampa enrolled its first group of students in the International Teacher Education Program (ITEP), offered through the Fischler School of Education and Human Services, this fall. While the ITEP students are from several different countries, the majority come from Latin countries or from a Latin background. To assist the learning process from a language perspective, some of the courses are delivered in Spanish.

All the students in this first group are already accomplished in various fields and are now proceeding to the next level by adding an NSU master’s degree to their list of successes.

• Yaneidis Gamez: Medical doctor from Venezuela who wants to teach in the medical field at the college level.
• Bryan Hamilton: Substitute teacher in Pinellas County with 17 years in the U.S. He traveled from Cuba in a fragile raft to reach U.S. soil.
• Juan Sosa: Dentist from Venezuela who wants to become a teacher and pursue a Ph.D. in the science field.
• Jorge Vasquez & Katia Vasquez: A married couple from Peru with accounting backgrounds and owners of a maintenance company. They are focused on getting a master's degree to teach in the financial or accounting field in college.
• Ariel Salas: Professor from Cuba who wants to teach to improve his professional career.
• Orlando Rodriguez: Colombian mechanical engineer and former owner of a manufacturing company. He wants to teach in the industrial vocational field.
• Rosario Torres: Business administrator from Peru, currently working in the advertising field but wants to teach Spanish because of his passion for Hispanic literature.
• Maribel Hernandez: Elementary teacher from Puerto Rico and now a family case worker in Hillsborough County.