Surviving Hurricane Maria: UF Alumnus to Give Presentation on His Puerto Rico Experiences

Jorge Figueroa, Ph.D.

What was it like to be on the island of Puerto Rico during and after Hurricane Maria? University of Findlay graduate Jorge Figueroa, Ph.D., who was living there when Maria struck, will share the personal hardships he and others faced as they weathered the storm and its aftermath, his hopes for revitalizing the island, and his ideas for how all Americans can best prepare for storms of a similar magnitude.
His presentation will be held on Thursday, March 22 from 7:30-9 p.m. in Winebrenner Theological Seminary, Room 254. The event will be free and open to the public.
Figueroa is a 2000 graduate of UF’s Master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Program. He has been involved in higher education for the past 18 years, where he has occupied different teaching, administrative and leadership positions. Since January 2018 he has been serving as a visiting associate professor for the College of Professional Education and its Department of Teacher Education at Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas where he teaches in the Bilingual Education/English as a Second Language Program.
He is also an associate professor for the School of Social and Human Sciences at Universidad del Este in Carolina, Puerto Rico (on sabbatical) where he teaches TESOL, bilingual education and instructional technology. His principle responsibility centers on instructing undergraduate and graduate students with the necessary training and development of competencies directed to the use of emergent technologies in the classroom.
Figueroa’s research subjects and publications focus on augmented and virtual reality for education, gamification, game-based learning, information communication technology for education, Integrating Technology to Second Language learning, diversity in higher education and bilingual education.
Also during his visit to Findlay, Figueroa will present a workshop on multiple uses of technology and the internet in K-12 and second language classrooms.