Passionate about words? Volunteer with us!
we would love to welcome you as a volunteer!
We currently need help in the area of
-- sound proofing
-- sound editing
-- editing of sample sentences and comments and
-- proof reading.
Please send me an email if you would like to become a part of
Platinum volunteers
This page will serve as a platform to portrait and honor our outstanding volunteers.our project!
Thank you
to our precious volunteers
(listed alphabetically):
Abigail Beal
Erica Corwell,
Billie Sue Fischer,
Travonda Green,
Stephanie Guyer-Stevens,
Amy Humbert
Naomi Hupert,
Natasha Lewin
Michelle Lua,
Ellen P.,
James Pennington
David Riddle,
Heather Rutkowski,
Cliff Stephens,
Kimberly Stickland,
Jasmina Thompson,
Dixon Wragg
Michelle Lua, volunteer since 2006
About myself
I'm a native Californian. I went to college at Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington where I majored in French and minored in English. I also got my teaching credential.
I spent a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps teaching English to Junior and Senior High School students at an Eskimo boarding school in St. Mary's Alaska. Although I loved the teaching, I did not love the isolation of bush Alaska.
When I returned from Alaska I was unable to find a teaching position, so I substituted for a year in the Sacramento area. I was still unable to find a teaching position, so I took a job with the Internal Revenue Service where I was a manager for 27 years. I retired after 30 years with the Federal government in March 2005. Since then I have been substitute teaching in Rohnert Park, doing quite a bit with my Church and have found a niche "playing with words" for e-spindle.
Why did I start to volunteer for eSpindle?
I love language. I majored in French and English. I have been a voracious reader since ... forever. When I was young I could lose myself in the dictionary moving from word to word untangling a puzzle. Now I feel like it's my job to do this. What more could I ask?
I love looking at a new word - and these are almost all new words to me. Then, I guess how it's pronounced and what it means on the basis of 2 years of grade school Spanish, 2 years of high school Latin, 3 years of high school French, 1 year of high school Italian, 4 years of college French and 16 years of English instruction. Sometimes, I'm right. I'm always thrilled. I'm always learning.
I'm happy to be able to contribute to what I feel is a worthwhile enterprise. Language is important. It's the way that we communicate. Words are what we use to express ideas. How successful we are at expressing these ideas is almost completely dependent on the effectiveness of the way we put our words together. The bigger the vocabulary that an individual is able to use, the more successful she will be in expressing her ideas with not just clarity and precision, but also with subtlety and nuance.
LearnThatWord and the Open Dictionary of English are programs by LearnThat Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
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