Emily Suh's dissertation, "Off from Lost"; Generation 1 Learners' Transition from Adult ESL to Developmental Education, has won the 2019 AAAL dissertation award. In her study, Emily examined immigrant /refugee adults’ experiences in community college as they navigated through non-credit English as a second language (ESL) courses and into credit-bearing developmental education courses. Emily found their journey to be fraught with bureaucratic roadblocks, confusing cultural cul de sacs, and linguistic wrong turns. By creating six case studies of Generation One community college learners, Emily opened a new, richly-detailed view onto her participants' struggles to learn English, gain an academic foothold in community college, and invest in their American future.
Emily was advised by Dr. Jenelle Reeves (TLTE), and her committee included Drs. Theresa Catalano (TLTE), Loukia Sarroub (TLTE), and Rachel Shah (English). Dr. Emily Suh is now an assistant professor at Texas State University in San Marco, Texas, in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction