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Thomas College Offers Fellowship for Kotlas Teacher

Pavel Koptelov

Early last year, Thomas College announced that it wanted to offer a graduate fellowship to a teacher from Kotlas for the Spring 2010 semester. The members of the Waterville area delegation that visited Kotlas that April hand-carried the letter of invitation and the application specifics to the the Waterville Committee:

1. The fellow would be enrolled in courses in the Graduate program in Education at Thomas.
2. He or she will teach at least one course, the subject and content of would be determined by consultation between the fellow and the vice president for academic affairs.
3. The fellowship would cover room, board, fees, insurance, travel, and a modest monthly stipend.

As a result, Pavel Koptelov is at Thomas College this semester. He will take two postgraduate courses in education and present an undergraduate course on intercultural communication to Thomas students. Pavel was born and raised in Kotlas. He graduated from Ivanovo State University in 1999 and taught English at a college in Moscow. He returned to Kotlas in 2001 and now trains teachers of English at the Kotlas Teachers Training School.

This is Pavel's first trip to the United States. He thanks all those who helped make the experience possible, in particular to Ken Green of the Kotlas Connection's executive committee and at Thomas, Dr. Thomas Edwards, provost, and Fran Day, Dean of Institutional Advancement, to name just a few.

Update (Oct. 2010): Thomas College was sufficiently pleased with the outcome of the program, that it has decided to invite another Kotlas area teacher to come to Waterville next year. Thus, Tanya Shelygina will be teaching at Thomas College for the Spring 2011 semester. She has come to Waterville twice for brief stays, in 2003 and 2006, and we look forward to having her here for a longer time.

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