Mary Borger:
CLASS OF 1960
La Salle High SchoolClass of 1960
Niagara falls, NY
Columbia UniversityClass of 1991
New york, NY
Evershed Elementary SchoolClass of 1952
Niagara falls, NY
Mary's Story
Life
Let me begin way back in 1960 when I got a job with the Telephone Company in NF then transferred to Buffalo. Hated it, left, lived w/ my father in Phila and met husband. That lasted 10 years and had 2 children.. Finished my Bachelor of Arts in California in Linguistics - 1975, went to Long Beach to start work on my Masters;1976 took a position at Judi Shapur University in Ahwaz, Iran. Left Iran 1978 as the revolution got under way; was wonderful to be there, absolutely fascinating!!! Learned to read and write Farsi; got some much needed international experience.
1979 awarded one of the highest academic honors-a Fulbright Lectureship to Sibiu, Romania for two years -English as a Foreign Language worked with American Embassy Bucharest promoted cultural programs in University. Traveled around the country -made several trips to, Budapest, Hungary- Went to Budapest to teach at the University there. My children used join me for the summers and we traveled in Europe.
1981-W. Berlin;1982 West Germany-managerial in Nuremberg. Oh is Bavaria ever beautiful!!!
1987 returned to US, New York City, got a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics -Columbia University 1991and my older son was married in June; took a summer position teaching at Harvard University in 1991 and 1993. 1994 applied for a teacher-trainer position with the U.S. Peace Corps TRAINED Peace Corps volunteers to become TESL teachers in Estonia.
Estonia-entirely different personal and professional experience to see a former Soviet republic that had been savaged by neglect of the environment.
1995 University of Bahrain. 1998 Muscat, Oman Petroleum Development/Shell (the Oil Company). corporate training, which was more to my liking. 2000 position in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and couldn't take the restrictions on wom...Expand for more
en; 2001 here in Doha, Qatar- the place is just bubbling with oil and gas.
March 2002 presented a paper TESOL ARABIA Conference Abu Dhabi; Sept 2002 at Istanbul, Turkey; Jan 2003 in Cairo, Egypt, then in Slovenia, Bulgaria, and so on.
College
I decided to study Spanish while in California so I began at Fullerton College, Fullerton, California (while I was still married). I kept taking courses and finally completed the A.A. with concentration in Spanish while completing the general education requirements. (1973) Then I went to Calif State University in Fullerton and got a B.A. with Honors in Linguistics.
I began working internationally with my first position at Jundi Shapur University in Ahwaz, Iran. Then I lived in Europe until i returned to the U.S., New York City, to get my M.A. in Applied Linguistics at Columbia University--1991.
More international work/travel. (2002) I lived and workd in the Middle East (Doha, Qatar).
From Doha, Qatar, easy to catch a flight to a European or Asian country, e.g., India, Nepal, Sri Lanka,Malaysia, etc.
Hero: Albert Schweitzer
If I won $100 million, I'd give some of it to my children, then spend the rest on homes, travel and educational development programs in developing nations.
My best friend would tell you I'm warm, understanding & successful, but people who don't know me very well would probably describe me as distant. I used to measure my high school friends' intelligence by what they aspired to and how fast they wanted to leave Nia Falls. When studying history as LaSalle Sr. High, I used to then look at NF and hate it for what it was.
Now I live in Malta, this beautiful island nation, south of Sicily. My work is with an NGO assisting the "irregular migrants" who end up here. It's a little tame after living in the Gulf states.
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