Connoquenessing native Jolene McConnell's way with words has landed her a prestigious overseas English language teaching fellowship.

McConnell, the daughter of Frances and Sherwin McConnell of Connoquenessing, is one of only 140 U.S. citizens selected for the U.S. Department of State's English Language Fellow Program.

She will leave in September for Moscow where she will teach English for a year at the Russian Federation of Moscow Research Institute of Steel and Alloys.

“Right now I am busy with the visa process. It is quite extensive,” said McConnell, who is an instructor in the English language program at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.

“Once I finish that I will spend a little time with Russian so I can at least learn the alphabet and a few key expressions,” McConnell said.

She doesn't speak Russian but she hopes to pick up some of the basics.

“I know how languages work but learning a language is never easy. It is a lot of work, a lot of dedication,” McConnell said.

“I've studied several but never become fluent. I do read Korean because that is the only country I've been to where they don't use the Latin alphabet.

“Russia is Cyrillic, but it is much more similar to the American alphabet than Korean was,” she said.

Since 1969, the English Language Fellow Program has sent thousands of teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) scholars and educators abroad to promote English language learning, enhance English teaching capacity and foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries through cultural exchange.

McConnell said, “It was an application and interview process. The minimum qualification is to have a master's degree in TESOL and at least one year of teaching experience.”

She said she had an interview in October and found out she had been accepted to the program in May.

“I will be paid for the program but it does not count as credit toward a Ph.D.,” McConnell said. “I will get my job back after a year.”

After graduating from Butler High School in 1997, McConnell earned a bachelor's degree in history from Point State Park University in Pittsburgh and a master's degree in TESOL and linguistics from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. She has been at Kansas State since 2012.

“I am really looking for more experience in an academic setting in a foreign country because, while I taught in other countries, I worked in private schools, private language schools and public schools,” said McConnell. She lived in South Korea and Poland and worked for a cruise ship line teaching the crew members English.

That was no easy task, she said.

“English is a hard language to learn because there are so many exceptions to the rules. You have to understand how your language works, which is difficult because so much of it is instinctive,” McConnell said.

“You have understand how other people think and what their expectations to language are to think of language in a different way,” she said.

She said a graduate assistantship showed her she preferred teaching.

At Kansas State, she said, she is teaching English to Chinese and Saudi Arabian students.

And, while she will be teaching English to Russians five days a week in Moscow, “I'm hoping to travel in Russia,” she said.

Her mother, Frances McConnell, said of her daughter's upcoming Russian relocation, “I don't like the idea. I'm hoping she will be safe. I have put her under God's protection, that's all you can do.”

Fellows teach English, conduct teacher training, develop resources and organize events and conferences.

According to the State Department, these projects are challenging and the teachers selected represent the best of the U.S. TESOL community.

In return, the program provides professional development opportunities to help participants experience different cultures and build skills that can greatly enhance their TESOL careers back home.