Richard Niyibigira’s journey from his home in Rwanda to the University of Oregon began when he learned about online training for teachers available internationally through the UO’s American English Institute.

The institute has offered eLearing programs for teachers such as Niyibigira to more than 5,000 English as a foreign language educators in more than 100 countries since 1996. The program, part of the UO linguistics department, values international ties to the UO and is committed to working to help international students succeed in their studies.

Niyibigira passed the AEI course with high marks and was invited to participate in a face-to-face conference and training at the University of Maryland, where he met several instructors from the UO. When he got word he received a Fulbright Scholarship, his experience with the UO convinced him he wanted to become a Duck to further his studies.

Keli Yerian, director of the linguistics department’s Language Teaching Specialization program, sees value in the AEI’s ability to give students from around the world new opportunities to learn.

“Richard never would have applied to the UO if he hadn’t had these kind of access possibilities and had found the scaffolding to end up being here,” she said. “He’s a really interesting person and from a really interesting part of the world – in terms of diversity for the UO it’s nice.”

Niyibigira has been at the UO about 10 months and will stay until he completes his masters in linguistics with a language teaching specialization. One of the things Niyibigira finds unique about the language teaching program is its focus on the teaching of language as a subject, not just the teaching of English.

Niyibigira also speaks French and Kinyarwanda and intends to use the skills he acquired at the UO to teach those languages as well. He plans to return to Rwanda with this degree and continue teaching at the college where he taught originally.

“With this cultural experience and degree, I will be able to teach more authentically. It will benefit myself, my career and my students,” Niyigibira says of his time at the UO.

―By Katherine Cook, UO Public Affairs Communications intern