My name is Hannah Dolbeer
and I'm about to graduate from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor's degree in Film and with a minor in Cultural Studies. After spending a great deal of time immersed in filmmaking and the arts, I have discovered that I am even more interested in culture – especially studying culture and social science. This website serves as a portfolio of my graduate candidacy as well as an informal space for curriculum vitae related materials, and other professional and academic pursuits.
I am fascinated by language and I am doing everything I can to learn Portuguese, to study linguistics in any way I can, and to be involved with language exchange. After getting a degree in the arts and cultural studies, I hope to emerge with a broad background in the humanities as well, including history, foreign policy, anthropology, psychology, and language courses. As a student, I have thought hard and struggled throughout my college years about the course of my future, and I am finally ready to start making decisions that set that course into motion. I have come to the conclusion that my life is always going to involve this for certain: the Portuguese language and the culture surrounding it.
My career goals today are to regain a native level fluency in Portuguese, earn a degree at a Portuguese institution or American institution involving the instruction of Portuguese, and one day work for the State Department as a diplomat and possibly, a language instructor. If not the State Department, there are numerous other ways I can be of use to our government in relation to Portuguese language and culture.
I received a TEFL certification in 2010 when I became interested in linguistics and second language acquisition. I have had a summer’s experience tutoring ESL students at three different volunteer-based organizations, and so I firmly feel that one of my strengths lies in teaching other people about language.
For the last 40 years my mother has been a flight attendant, and even before that she grew up moving from country to country, with her Brazilian-American family, truly a citizen of the world. My interest in the cultures of the world started with her and her knack for language acquisition.
