Born:
Elizabeth

Raised:
Sterling

Resides:
Clifton

Education:
B.A., Russian language with specialized honors in Russian literature, Drew University

M.A., Slavic literature, University of California at Berkeley.

Talents:
Singing. She has sung in a cappella groups, jazz choirs and with an opera company.

Hobbies:
Going to the movies. (She's a big "Harry Potter" fan.)

Also collects Legos and other trinkets such as Barrel of Monkeys and Lincoln Logs.

Favorite place to visit:
London

Russian may not be one of the romance languages, but Jessica Brandt fell in love with it anyway. It was as a student at Drew University where Jessica first took a Russian class and became so enamored she made it her major. She followed that with an M.A. in Slavic literature and is not only fluent in Russian, but has experience speaking Czech, German, French and Spanish. She puts all her wide-ranging language skills to good use as Montclair State's language testing coordinator.

The position was created in 2001 with Jessica as the first coordinator. Although following graduate school Jessica thought she would teach, she found it difficult to find a full-time position as a Russian instructor. When the position in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences became available, she saw it as an opportunity to share her knowledge in a different way. "I was excited because I liked the idea of being able to form the position myself," she said. "This would be a new little niche that I was carving out."

Jessica's responsibilities include scheduling, administering and reporting results of placement tests in six foreign languages and English as a Second Language, maintaining a database of student testing information, working with faculty in the various foreign language departments, advising students on foreign language requirements, and hiring and training graduate and student testing assistants.

But in the two years she's been here she says she's also tried to streamline processes. "We've converted to a Web-based test for three of our languages: Spanish, French and German," she said. "Right now we still have to proctor the test on campus, but we can use any computer that has an Internet connection and students get the results right away.

"We've also included a field in SIS for foreign language placement information that we've just instituted so advisers anywhere on campus can look up that information. In addition, all our testing information is now being incorporated in admissions materials, which has improved the return rate and overall knowledge of the students of what's required of them."

Jessica also spends time as an adjunct professor. Last year she taught a third-year Russian course and an upper-level course in Russian culture and civilization, and this semester she's teaching German. "I like to keep up with teaching partly because I enjoy it, but also because it's good for me to know what's going on in the language classes."

She says the interaction with students is beneficial in many aspects. "I've worked with students who have hated sitting in a language class every minute they were there, so I know how they feel when they come here and find out they have to take more," she said. "I have a sense of what they're going through and what's reasonable to expect from them. I also have an idea of how to spin it for them--that learning a language is a useful way to develop your all-around skills and that employers will be interested in seeing that you have that background."

Having taught Russian to middle school students for three years in North Carolina, Jessica has now found a home in higher education. Although she says some of her best students were eighth graders, she feels her personality is more in tune to the 18-24-year-old age group. "There's something really interesting about that age, especially here where a lot of the students are first generation college students. It's exciting to work with them and help them figure out what opportunities there are."

One opportunity she encourages students to take advantage of is travel abroad. Throughout her schooling and career, Jessica has spent time in Moscow, St. Petersburg and London, and she says those experiences are invaluable. "I think the times I've spent overseas, overall, have been at least as educational as any time I've spent in school. I definitely try to instill that in my students."

Since language requirements and technology are always changing, Jessica has to stay on top of the latest developments and is currently working on two initiatives. She and the Italian coordinator are developing an Italian placement test that would be the first computer-delivered test developed at Montclair State, and may also have an oral component through voice-activated software, which Jessica says will help place students more accurately.

Jessica also is on a grant committee looking into funding a language resource center that could include language labs, a lending library, a heritage-speaker series, presentations from study abroad students and more. "I think it has the potential to be a really great development for Montclair State," she said. "It would offer us a way to make our mark in language education in this state and potentially forge a lot of ties to the community."

Is there a colleague you'd like to nominate for "On the Job?" If so, e-mail his/her name along with a brief description of how he/she contributes to the campus community, to Jennifer Fusco at fuscoj@mail.montclair.edu.

Go back to the Insight index