Laura Gatzkiewicz-Mangono

Instructor
Valencia, Spain Campus
Also affiliated with:
Valencia, Spain Campus
lgatzkiewiczmangono@berklee.edu
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Courses Taught
Introduction to College Writing
  • Career Highlights
    • Owner of a business running intensive English seminars for corporations (i.e., Lindt and Sprüngli) and state agencies (i.e., WDR and DLR) in Germany
    • Owner of a translating business in Spain
    • As a graduate student, taught composition at Colorado State University and worked in the writing center
    • Created curriculum for and taught in a pilot program in writing across the curriculum at the Engineering School at Colorado State University
    • Resident director of Rutgers in Spain, an exchange program with over 40 years of history between two prestigious, public research universities
    • Studied abroad as a direct enrollment student at the Freie Universität Berlin
  • Awards
    • Recipient of a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Germany
  • Education
    • B.A., Williams College, history, cum laude and with honors
    • M.A., Colorado State University, English degree with distinction, with a speciality in TESL 

In Their Own Words

"Having taught English, composition, and rhetoric as well as history for almost 30 years, I have arrived at an eclectic mix in my teaching, which comprises short lectures, open class discussions, and interactive group activities. Obviously, each student learns differently, and the group dynamics make each class its own world, a fact that keeps me on my toes. I feel that what we do in the classroom should be relevant enough to encourage students to explore the topic on their own so that the knowledge gained is useful to them throughout their college careers and beyond." 

"In the writing course I currently teach, I would like students to start using their writing as a means of reflection and exploration, not merely to fulfill an assignment. For this reason, I have instituted an extra-credit blog through which they can record and reflect upon their time in Valencia. Having studied abroad myself and having served as the resident director for the Rutgers in Spain program for the past 15 years, I can attest to the importance of reflective journaling as a way of processing the unique life experience that is study abroad, especially in the fabulous setting that Berklee affords its First Year Abroad students."