English Language Fellow Program

Patty MacKinnon has thirty years of experience educating immigrant and international students both in the United States and overseas. For the past fifteen years, Patty has taught English to African refugees and immigrants at Lewiston High School in Maine. She also is a teacher coach for classroom instruction and a mentor for Bates College students, who regularly work with her as part of their community service learning.

Patty strives to pave a path toward community unity by bringing people of diverse experiences together in her school and larger community through collaborative public writing projects, yearly Martin Luther King Day workshops, and an annual Celebrate Diversity Festival. In addition, Patty spends her summer with indigenous villagers in Guatemala working on her Safe Water for Guatemala Project.

Patty is an alumna of the English Language Fellow program. As a fellow, Patty worked with the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to integrate North Korean defectors into South Korean society in preparation for the unification of Korea. Her work included creating school curricula for English language instruction and for social and emotional healing from trauma, in addition to building understanding and trust between the people of the North and South.