Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
Source: Document Collections and Photographic Archives of the Grossmont College English Department. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.
Source: The Gallery: A 35th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1996. p19.
An Adelphi University graduate and former member of the Student Education Association of New York State (SEANYS), Virginia Berger completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California, where she obtained in 1970 her TESOL credentials (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) and an M.S. degree in Teacher Education. In 1980, then Grossmont College's English Department Chair, Homer Lusk, hired Berger to teach part-time, after which Berger returned to San Diego State University in 1984 to continue her graduate studies in ESL and obtained her master’s degree in Applied Linguistics. At Grossmont, her teaching assignments advanced to include ESL-emphasis College Composition (English 110). Finally, in 1990, Homer Lusk welcomed her back into the English Department as a full-time, tenure-track ESL instructor, to assist Patricia Bennett in the development of the ESL Program.
From 1990 onward, ESL courses not only began receiving their own listing in the Schedules of Classes as a separate program, but the course offerings expanded dramatically to address different skill levels and areas. Meanwhile, Berger participated even more actively in state and international professional organizations, sat on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of the California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL), served as a state and local conference organizer and presenter, and worked on the ICAS ESL Task Force for Students in California Public Higher Education. Beginning in 1994, she assumed a twelve-year-long prestigious post as Chair of the ESL Program.1 In 1999, in recognition of her long and considerable service to the College, she was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award.
Since it began in 1976, the ESL Program had been operating under the auspices of the English Department; in 2006, however, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Berger, Bennett, and other full-time ESL instructors, ESL finally became a stand-lone Department in the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences/English. This accomplishment would be Berger’s last for the college: at the conclusion of that academic year, she announced her retirement from the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.
Virginia Berger’s retirement did not mark an end to her accomplishments in the field of Education and ESL. By August of 2009 she had obtained certification as a Life Trac Coach and began providing weekly coaching at Grossmont College to students challenged by autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or learning disabilities, as well as students affected by economic hardships, parenting difficulties, and language drawbacks. She continued to be a Life Coach at Grossmont until 2013, after which she taught TESOL Practicum workshops through UCSD Extension.
1 "ESL Program Coordinator" continued to be the official nomenclature used in Grossmont College's catalogs for many years. However, in 2009, when Chuck Passentino stepped into the role of ESL head, the term "Chairperson" appeared for the first time in the catalogs, at last acknowledging ESL as an autonomous Department within the Division.
Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
8800 Grossmont College Drive
El Cajon, California 92020
619-644-7000
Accessibility
Social Media Accounts
