Staff Spotlight | Kathryn Saperstein

Kathryn Saperstein currently serves as the English as a Second Language (ESL) Coordinator and Instructor for the CRIS Match Grant Program.

“I started teaching English to refugees in 1986 and never stopped. Back then, I was living and teaching in Chicago. We had Vietnamese, Hmong, and Laotian refugees at that time. I moved to Columbus and continued teaching English to refugees. Over the years, I have seen and heard on the news about the wars that have taken place and then witnessed the resulting waves of refugees.

My first teaching experience with CRIS was around 2008 as a substitute English teacher. There were classes in various locations around the city. I taught elsewhere for a while then returned to CRIS around 2013 and taught three years. When the administration change took place, there were no longer teaching opportunities through CRIS and I transitioned to teaching at Columbus State Community College. In 2020, I was sitting at a conference where I heard the speaker say something like, ‘You may not be able to fix all of the injustice in the world, but you can move one shovel of dirt.’ I found myself inspired to return to CRIS to continue serving refugees.

Later that year, I returned to the CRIS staff for a third time, this time serving as housing coordinator for one year. This was a wonderful experience but I realized that I needed to be teaching again. It is important to me to teach English. I teach refugees English because I want them to have a better life than they had before. They’ve already been through so much–I want them to have a decent quality of life here in the U.S. I believe that as they learn English and/or continue their education here, it is a means, ultimately, of social mobility.”