By:Chelsea Hunt Guest Contributor
A large poster of her hometown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, leans up against a wall in Maria Dantas-Whitney’s office. Lining surfaces are colorful, miscellaneous objects given by international students to this professor of both English for Speakers of Other Languages and Bilingual Education.
They reflect her colorful personality, said friend and colleague Tracy Smiles.
“She’s always bright and friendly,” said Smiles.
From her professional pursuits to her mentoring, collaboration is just the way Dantas-Whitney lives her life. It’s one of the reasons she came to Western Oregon University to teach. She felt that she would work well with the other professors.
“This was a really good fit,” said Dantas-Whitney.
While at Western, Dantas-Whitney has collaborated with her colleagues to bring in grant money for different projects, most recently the SPELL grant which is now in its final year.
A colleague congratulated Dantas-Whitney a day before she got the official notification that the grant had been approved to the sum of nearly $2 million.
“It was a big surprise,” said Dantas-Whitney.
Although Dantas-Whitney is the project director, it was a group effort. Ella Taylor from the Teaching Research Institute helped write the grant, and Carmen Caceda, professor of Teacher Education, has helped with the grant work.
Project SPELL, which stands for Sustainable Practices for English Language Learners, is a five-year grant that provides federal funding for teachers from Salem-Keizer and Woodburn to get an ESOL endorsement through Western.
More students today have first languages other than English, so teachers need to know how to help these students succeed, Dantas-Whitney explained.
Amanda Larsen, who taught in Salem-Keizer, was one of the people who participated in the program.
“Having an endorsement in ESOL allows me to use some of the knowledge I gained and help those English language learners that are in my classroom,” said Larsen.
Larsen found Dantas-Whitney to be an effective advisor for her thesis as she worked towards getting a master’s in ESOL.
“Immediately you get the impression that she is competent and on top of things,” said Larsen.
In addition to her competency, Smiles said that Dantas-Whitney’s warm personality sets her students at ease.
“I’ve met few people who are as charming and responsive as Maria,” added Smiles.
For Dantas-Whitney teaching and mentoring are collaborative efforts and this influences the way that she works with students who are writing a thesis.
She first asks them to look at the areas that interest them because they need to be passionate and curious about their topics.
Because she is a humble person, as her son Thomas Whitney put it, Dantas-Whitney does not see herself as someone who tells students what they should do.
“I consider myself a mentor,” said Dantas-Whitney.
