Natalia Mityushina
Natalia Mityushina came to SDSU’s American Language Institute for the first time in 2012 at the advice of her mother’s friend in San Diego, who told her how wonderful of a place it is to live.
Natalia certainly did enjoy the area and her education during her two months of studying Intensive English for Communication (IEC) to improve her English and find a good job in her hometown of Moscow, Russia.
Little did she know that, a little more than two years later, she would be back at the ALI in the International Business English (IBE) program after working in Russia’s financial world.
“I wanted to make changes in my life,” she said. “I wanted to study business in a U.S. university. I needed a lot of preparation to be accepted.”
Natalia started back at the ALI in January 2015 with IBE. When that session ended, she heard about the new Social Entrepreneurship (SE) program and wanted to give it a try. The SE program focuses on creating businesses that solve social problems.
“Some of my classmates were involved and liked it,” she said. “I tried it and loved the program.”
The SE program taught her the importance of helping other people. “SE showed me how people can be more successful in business and how you can help improve lives throughout the world,” she said.
Natalia’s proposed SE project was to one day open a fitness school for people who had never tried it before, remembering how it was when she first went to a gymnasium and felt out of place.
She also took the Pre-MBA and Pre-Master’s programs in hopes of building up her resume to obtain a Ph.D. in business through an American university. Natalia just completed the TESL/TEFL (Teaching English as a Second Language/Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program with hopes of one day teaching English to non-native speakers either in the U.S. or abroad.
“Non-native speakers come with a lot of issues in English,” she said. “Learning English is important. I want to be able to help them.”
Natalia added that the ALI has been of significant help to her.
“I’ve met a lot of great people here,” she said. “The ALI has great instructors who have helped me a lot. I like the atmosphere. The teachers don’t only talk, they listen to what students have to say. ALI attracts wonderful, enthusiastic, and hard-working students who want to communicate as much as possible in school and out of school. It’s a fantastic learning community, where I want to study and work in the future. I’m lucky to be here.”
