Anne Dugger '18 MAEd
Teacher Leadership, English as a Second Language
Anne Dugger '18 MAEd
Teacher Leadership, English as a Second Language
Compassionate service
Anne Dugger '18 MAEd uses her master's knowledge every day as she serves the Cedar Rapids community and impacts the lives of immigrants.
MMU: You work as the education program manager at the Catherine McAuley Center. What does a typical day of work look like for you?
AD: As the director of education services, my typical day is filled with people from other countries. I typically hear French, Swahili, Spanish, Vietnamese, Kirundi, and Arabic throughout my day.
We usually have over 100 people, both adult learners and volunteer tutors, every morning and about 100 every night. Our days span from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. most of the week and each hour is filled with laughter, learning, and languages! I work on community partnerships, volunteer engagement, and curriculum projects for adult basic education and English as Another Language (EAL) every day.
MMU: What’s your favorite part of your job?
AD: I love everything about my job! My education team is a true collaboration of brilliant minds, our larger CMC staff is a team of people who are ready to help serve our community. And the adult learners and the volunteer tutors are favorites as well!
The students open the world up to me. They’re from over 50 countries, and I get to exchange in cultural and linguistic conversations every day. The volunteer tutors show me every day what it means to be community minded–they volunteer their time to learn how to teach and then teach students English, citizenship, math, conversation, and computer skills. I am surrounded daily by the best people and ideas this area of Iowa has to offer.
The students open the world up to me. They’re from over 50 countries, and I get to exchange in cultural and linguistic conversations every day.
MMU: How has earning your MAEd enhanced your career?
AD: I spend the majority of my time teaching our volunteer tutors how to teach. They often aren’t teachers by trade, so they need training. My master’s degree from Mount Mercy has helped me every single moment at CMC by preparing me to lead teachers and lead my education faculty. The coursework I took for linguistics in the ELL endorsement program helped my team create training for our tutors about languages and language transfer, or how your first language impacts learning a second, third, or fourth language. The gains from the master’s program were immediate and I put what I was learning into practice, usually within a day or two of my classes weekly.
MMU: What does a Mount Mercy education mean to you?
AD: For me, it meant growing my dream job to help serve more people. It meant understanding the educational leadership needed to develop quality measures and training for the people with whom I work. Every moment of learning for my master’s with Mount Mercy means hundreds more people from our community are able to communicate, gain employment, speak to their kids’ teachers, and hundreds of people from our community are able to take part in our community!
The gains were immediate, and I put what I was learning into practice—usually within a day or two of my classes.
MMU: Do you have any advice for current MAEd students?
AD: Stick with this, it’s absolutely worth your time. Even if this degree hadn’t helped me directly in my career, it would have still been worth it to be a part of the Mount Mercy community, learn new and exciting ways to innovate in educational leadership, and to think about how I can best serve my community.