Des Moines Area Community College recently issued the following announcement.
- Windheuser has experience at DMACC as an Adjunct Instructor in the non-credit ELL Program and in the Urban Campus Academic Achievement Center.
- He has Managed Educational Initiatives Aimed at Serving Refugee and Immigrant Adult Learners, Including Programs Related to ESL, Citizenship, Career Pathways and Financial Literacy.
- Windheuser Will Coordinate all Non-Credit ELL Classes District-Wide for DMACC.
“We are very excited to have John in this new position,” Urban Campus Provost Dr. Anne Howsare Boyens said. “For many years, non-credit ELL was supported by many part time employees. With John at the helm in a full-time leadership position, we will have a more coordinated and robust program to serve our non-native English speaking students.”
“My work experience has centered around serving adult learners, particularly refugees and immigrants,” Windheuser said.
He has worked at DMACC in a part-time capacity for the past five years. During that time, he has worked as an adjunct instructor in the non-credit ELL program and as an adjunct in the Urban Campus Academic Achievement Center, where he provided individualized assistance to students in college reading, writing and ESL (English as a Second Language).
For the past two and a half years, Windheuser has worked as an ELL Consultant managing the day-to-day operations of the non-credit ELL program at Urban and several off-site locations.
“At the same time, I worked part-time as Lutheran Services in Iowa, where I managed several large-scale educational initiatives aimed at serving refugee and immigrant adult learners, including programs relating to ESL, citizenship, career pathways and financial literacy.”
Windheuser has taught ESL/ELL in Iowa, Washington and in Spain, where he spent two years working in the Spanish public school system as an English Language Assistant in bilingual schools.
He said one of his goals is to get ELL students to transition from non-credit classes to taking DMACC credit classes.
“Students in our program all have a reason for being here, whether it is to prepare to go to college, to become a U.S. citizen, to get a better job, etc.,” Windheuser said. “As a result, my goal is to build better bridges out of non-credit ELL for our students. For our students who want to go to college, that means building stronger, more clear pathways into credit programming at DMACC.”
He said given the diverse goals the DMACC student population has, building bridges into other types of programs and opportunities whether internal such as HiSET, Workforce Training Academy, or external such as programs out in the community, is also hugely important.
Windheuser will be based out of the DMACC Urban Campus, which provides the majority of DMACC’s ELL classes. However, he said ELL classes are also offered at the following locations:
- Urban Campus (1100 7th Street, Des Moines, IA 50314)
- Evelyn K. Davis Center (1171 7th Street, Des Moines, IA 50314)
- Southridge Center (1111 E. Army Post Road, Des Moines, IA 50315)
- Ames Hunziker Center (1420 S. Bell Avenue, Ames, IA 50010)
- Perry VanKirk Center (1011 2nd Street, Perry, IA 50220)
- Hope+Elim Church (2500 University Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50311)
- Oakridge Neighborhood (1401 Center Street, Des Moines, IA 50309)
“These classes have been very popular with students who have childcare or transportation barriers,” Windheuser said. “We also offered classes in the mornings and at night to be able to serve students with different work/personal schedules.”
Windheuser earned a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a minor in Latin American Students from the University of Iowa and then went on to earn a Master of Education in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Seattle University in Seattle, Washington.
Windheuser lives in Johnston with his wife and one-and-a-half year-old daughter.
Original source can be found here.
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