Mirta Martes Rivera is an instructor of English and linguistics who has taught in the higher education system in Puerto Rico and the United States. Mirta was born and raised in Puerto Rico and was educated in the public school system of Puerto Rico. She attended the University of Puerto Rico–Rio Piedras where she received a BA in English. After graduation, she taught English at public schools in Rio Piedras, but something was missing. So she attended the University of Puerto Rico–Rio Piedras where she received a master’s degree in English and secondary education. After receiving her master’s, she went back to public schools, but then she decided to attend Teachers College, Columbia University, where she received a master’s degree in applied linguistics. While in New York City, Mirta taught English to English native speakers at the prestigious Norman Thomas Commercial H. S., then a campus site of NYU. She also taught a TESOL course to international students enrolled in the CEP of Teachers College, Columbia University. Although Mirta was offered an administrative entry-level position at some offices at TC/CU, she decided to return to Puerto Rico. (Now Mirta wouldn’t decline those job offers.) After attending Teachers College, Columbia University, Mirta returned to the island and taught English at the UPR-RP, namely, in the UHS lab school administered by the College of Education and the English Department in the College of Humanities.(Currently she teaches English to freshmen in the English Department of the College of General Studies.) However, two years later, Mirta attended Harvard University where she took courses with well-known scholars, namely, Dr. H. Gardner and Dr. C. Snow and took a course at MIT with the internationally well-known linguist, writer, and philosopher Dr. Noam Chomsky. She also conducted research in a bilingual program in a middle school with permission of the Boston Public School System. After Harvard University, she returned to PR and continued teaching at the higher education system. In the late ’90s, she worked as an intermittent teacher in the US DoDEA, namely, Antilles–Puerto Rico. In 2001, she went to Illinois where she taught ESL to immigrant students enrolled in high schools of the Illinois public school system and worked as an adjunct faculty in the ESL and Linguistics Department of William Rainey Harper College. Mirta has taught all levels in secondary schools in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the US DoDEA and has taught undergraduate students and nontraditional students in Puerto Rico and the United States. At the university and college level, Mirta has taught courses of ESL, English, linguistics, developmental college writing, expository writing, literature, public speaking, and communication. Some of these courses have had the components of research and lab work.
