Maria Teresa Balogh
Title: Teaching Assistant Professor of Spanish
Education: Marité Balogh received her M.A. in Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages and Foreign Languages and Literatures / Spanish (double major) from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing at UMSL in May 2007. She obtained her B.A. in Philology and Languages, which is the equivalent to a U.S. degree in Education/Linguistics, from Universidad del Atlántico in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Personal History: Marité grew up in Colombia, South America, but has lived in the United States off and on for several years. She has traveled extensively within the United States and in Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Mauritania, West Africa, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. She has also visited Madrid, Spain; Paris, France; London, England; Panama City, Panama; and Las Palmas, Canary Islands. She is a Spanish native speaker, a native-like English speaker, and she has advanced skills in French, and basic low-intermediate knowledge of Italian.
Marité served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa, where she taught English for Specific purposes to French speakers, and then as a water and sanitation technician in Honduras, Central America, where she educated rural people in simple bookkeeping, sanitation, plumbing, and administration of their new water systems. Marité started writing short stories in the summer of 2000. She continues to write short stories and poetry.
Teaching Interest and Experience: Spanish as a Foreign Language (all levels), English as a Second Language, Spanish and Literature (native Spanish speakers and A.P. Spanish), and Multicultural Studies. Marité has taught Spanish as a second or foreign language, both in Colombia and in the United States. In the United States, she has taught in several high schools, a community college, and two universities. In Colombia, she taught at an institute that specialized in teaching Spanish to foreigners working in Colombia, and also in high schools. She has also taught ESL at the university level in the United States, and EFL in two universities in Colombia, as well as ESP (English for specific purposes) in West Africa.
Related Activities: Marité restarted the Spanish table, with a colleague, in UMSL. The Spanish Table presents an opportunity for Spanish speaking students, faculty and staff to practice the language outside of a classroom setting. She has also participated in the reading of poetry in Spanish at the Springs of 2005 & 2006 Monday Noon Series in UMSL.
Publications: Marité Balogh published the short story “La mordida” as a chapter in the anthology “Más allá de las fronteras: cuento,” which was out in April 2004 by Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, New Jersey, U.S.A. She also received an offer for a 25% fellowship for the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia with the short story “Sundays at the Gulf,” summer 2004. She was section editor of Natural Bridge, the literary journal of the University of Missouri, St. Louis’ MFA program, for issue No 15 “The Dreams Issue” published in the spring semester 2006. received an offer for a 25% fellowship for the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia with the poem Before Beginning to Endure in the summer of 2006. She published the poems Grandfrather’s Ghost and The Girl on the Street in Bellerive Magazine, an UMSL publication on February 2007.