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Tatiana Emanuel This page was last reviewed on September 26, 2011   

                                 

Tatiana Emanuel began working in education as the founder of “A Step Ahead” after school program, in Antigua, W.I. After the program’s first year of operation, and following requests from some of the students’ parents, Tatiana partnered with the Caribbean Center for Sports, Education and Training to open a full K-12 Academy in Antigua, offering students the Ontario Secondary School Diploma upon graduation (www.ccset.net).  Tatiana worked at CCSET International Academy in teaching, course writing, and curriculum development for five years. The Academy has also offered courses in the Dominican Republic, Latvia, and St. Kitts.

As Tatiana modified the Ontario Secondary School curriculum to meet the needs of students with very diverse academic backgrounds, she recognized an incredible gap between university expectations and secondary curriculum requirements, especially in areas of critical thinking and academic writing.

Tatiana notes; “There is no reason why a student who worked hard in high school and kept up the same work ethics in his or her first year of university should experience a grade drop of ten percent or more. Canada’s intermediate-secondary education system, and that of many other countries, needs to be seen as inadequate, and improvements need to be made now before universities begin to lower their standards to bridge the gap.”

Tatiana anticipates writing a thesis that will challenge Ontario’s secondary education system and bridge the gap between high school and university. She is also preparing a critical thinking and academic writing curriculum that can be used by students and schools aiming to adequately prepare for post-secondary education.

According to Tatiana, Independent Studies is not for everyone: you have to be incredibly self-motivated, and have a clear educational goal in mind. For her, the flexibility and support of Waterloo’s IS program is ideal, allowing her to complete studies abroad when needed and to design her own university path.

Tatiana is very involved in music and songwriting, and her band’s first recorded song demos are on a YouTube channel under ThresholdMinistry.

She is also completing minors in Psychology and in Philosophy.

 

 

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