Kathy Koupai
ESL Noncredit
Professor Kathy Koupai has been working for the LA Community Colleges for over 18 years. Her areas of specialty are listening and speaking, developmental writing and using multiple intelligences to create original and though provoking work. Her students at Pierce College range in age from 18 to over 80 ,and hail from countries including Armenia, Iran, Russia, the Ukraine, Chile, Afghanistan and many more. One semester, Professor Koupai had 4 college and university professors in her class!
ESL 51 is a conversation course whose outline she co-authored many years ago with a team of Credit and Non Credit ESL instructors at sister college, East LA College. In essence, this course is one of Kathy’s babies. Students learn to interpret information and verbally communicate with their classmates about a range of topics including the five senses, famous buildings, music, sports, history, culture, food, holidays around the world and more. What erupts is an engaging and stimulating discourse that is in tune with the times, ever present and ultimately captivating. Students learn to use their own life experiences to cross borders theoretically in English, instead of simply relying on AI. Through it all, we have a great time and become a wonderful classroom community. Interested in taking a class with Prof. Koupai? Email her at koupaik@laccd.edu. Have a wonderful Fall semester!
Jamie Ray
ESL Credit & Noncredit
I am from Barstow, California. That is a small town in the Mojave Desert. It was a small town where I used to play and run in the dirt almost every day. Los Angeles is very different for me, even now! I left Barstow at the age of 18 in order to attend Cal Poly Pomona, a California State University. I was a runner in high school and was offered a running scholarship, so I took it, but when I arrived in college, it was hard for me. I had not cared much about school when I was in high school, and I was not ready. I spent my first year of college taking developmental math and writing courses. However, I learned a lot and I was really focused. I ran with my team every day, worked in a restaurant most nights, and studied during the day. Running with the university team was especially important because I made lots of friends, stayed in shape, and traveled a lot. My major was Spanish, so I spent one year in Madrid, Spain as a student. I got my Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish. After I graduated, I got my Master of Arts degree in English with a focus in TESL (Teaching English as a Second/Subsequent Language) and Rhetoric and Composition. I taught in China and Spain after graduating.
I've been teaching English since 2007 in California at community colleges and in different countries, such as China and Spain. I've been working as an ESL professor at Pierce College since 2013. I really love this campus and the students. I work with the Center for Academic Success (CAS) on campus to help support ESL students by supervising ESL tutors.
For some personal stuff (because I always liked knowing a bit more about my professors, too), I'm married (to a man from Spain, which is why Spanish is useful for me) and have twin boys. I'm very happy at Pierce College. I hope you are, too!”