TAYN Ep. 71 - Heather May cover art

TAYN Ep. 71 - Heather May

TAYN Ep. 71 - Heather May

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 Heather was raised in Youngstown, Ohio. She moved to the northwest corner of the state to earn her B.A. in Latin and Classical Art History at Bowling Green State University.During that time she was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.Heather moved to Dayton, Ohio, where she would live for 20 years. Heather was hired at Technicolor Cinema Services in their Wilmington, Ohio production facility. After 5 years with Technicolor, she was hired at University of Dayton in their Department of Teacher Education.

During Heather’s time at UD, she volunteered for the Marianist Environmental Education Center and coordinated their annual art and education show. Her world religions coursework led to attending a Buddhist women’s conference in Mongolia, her first trip to Asia. She hiredand managed the graduate assistants for her department, and volunteered for eventshosting international students.

Heather joined the Peace Corps and went to China in June of 2013. Heather was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching oral English to future English teachers. She learned that teaching and training adults is her jam. She served on internal PeaceCorps committees for peer professional support for teaching and edited the PC China gender equality and women’s empowerment monthly newsletter. She led ‘Teaching inEnglish’ training for her university’s faculty and local middle and high school teachers.

During her winter breaks, she stayed at Dhamma Moli, a Buddhist nunnery in Yangon,Myanmar, run by the Buddhist sisters she had met in Ohio, teaching English to nunswho were working on their PhDs. During service she earned Peace Corps’ TEFL(Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate, and at the end of her service in2016, she accepted a 3-month position as a TEFL Technical Trainer for the new cohortof PC China volunteers. After leaving China, She was hired by Fort Yates Public Middle School to be their English Language (EL) Coach and moved to Bismarck in November 2016. Heather returned to China as a TEFL trainer for 2 more summers, and in 2019, decidedto focus on adult education. She was hired at the North Dakota State Penitentiary toteach English Learners and GED classes. She was hired part time by the Bismarck Adult Learning Center (ALC) inJanuary of 2022 as an EL and GED teacher. In August, thanks in part to the wave ofUkrainian refugees, she was hired full time, teaching 3 English classes per day. While working at the ALC Heather became involved in Dakota TESOL, Teachers of English toSpeakers of Other Languages. She served as co-president of the organization in 2024and currently serves on their Executive Board as the Adult Education area interestRepresentative.

In August of 2024, Heather moved into her current role as Community IntegrationFacilitator for the City of Bismarck. This was a newly created position, housed in PublicHealth and funded by a grant from the state Office of Refugee Services. Heather is passionate about helping all area newcomers, but especially English learners, and believes that all types of success are related to some form of education.

Heather tries to approach every type of work with humility, humor, and her whole self,whether leading weary administrative staff in laughing exercises to lighten the mood orteaching The Hokey Pokey to Buddhist nuns as a way of practicing English (andallowing them to dance
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