UCI Bilingual MAT Candidates with Bilingual Coordinator
Bilingual MAT candidates, from the School of Education, began their spring quarter by attending the CABE (California Association for Bilingual Education) conference two weeks ago. The conference was held in Anaheim from March 29 to April 1. During their attendance at the conference, they met several school districts in need of bilingual teachers for their dual immersion schools and attended the various workshops offered, from current multilingual policy to dual language strategies in all content areas.
On the first day of the conference, Susan Guilfoyle, bilingual coordinator from the School of Education, moderated a panel of administrators from several new dual immersion schools in Westminster, Orange, Garden Grove and Fullerton (see Start-Ups: Lessons Learned From First Year Dual Immersion Programs, p. 73). Bilingual MAT candidates had the opportunity to meet with the panel after the workshop to discuss job opportunities at their schools.
Bilingual candidate, Joanna Baires Amaya, attended the awards luncheon held on 
Thursday, March 30. Among the many notable awardees during this luncheon, CABE awards four teacherships to aspiring future bilingual teachers. Joanna was recognized as the Charles “Chuck” Acosta Teachership (see Charles “Chuck” Acosta Award, p. 216) recipient this year. Joanna is the sixth recipient from UCI’s MAT program to receive a teachership award from CABE. All past recipients are successfully teaching at dual language schools. Megan Gibbs, past award recipient, is now a UCI master teacher for bilingual student teachers enrolled in the UCI MAT program. She is in her third year of teaching first grade in Spanish at Gates Elementary School’s two-way immersion program.
Megan Gibbs (on right) with Current UCI Bilingual Student Teacher, Cristina Rubalcava