School/College: Barnett College of Public Health, College of Education and Human Development
Degree/Year: BA, Linguistics, 2019; MSEd, TESOL, 2020
Hometown: Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania
Current Job Title: Newcomer program coordinator
Current Employer: Franklin Learning Center, School District of Philadelphia
When a child refugee or immigrant arrives in Philadelphia, sometimes disoriented and with no familiarity with the English language, Michelle Ferguson Shore, CPH ’19, ‘EDU ’20, is among the first to make them feel welcome. As the newcomer program coordinator at the Franklin Learning Center, a Philadelphia public high school with specialized support for newly arrived immigrant students, Michelle helps students navigate their new surroundings, ensures they have adequate translation tools, prepares them for English language tests and provides professional development to teachers across the district to assist similar students.
Michelle received an early education in learning differences growing up with her younger brother, David, who has Down syndrome. “Understanding challenges in communicating or expressing oneself was something that I had a deep appreciation of pretty early on,” Michelle says.
An excellent student in high school, Michelle received a Presidential Scholarship to Temple, providing full tuition as well as stipends to pursue summer enrichment. She made the most of it, teaching English in an enchanting Croatian village. Additionally, her master’s program provided an opportunity to enroll in a summer program at the prestigious University of Science and Technology of China.
Mastering language. Michelle caught the eye of Tamara Sniad, a former associate dean at Temple overseeing the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. When Sniad encouraged her to apply for the first-ever 4+1 master’s program for the discipline, Michelle jumped at the opportunity to obtain an advanced degree in just five years.
Respite for refugees. While at Temple, Michelle began interning with HIAS Pennsylvania. Originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS was founded more than a century ago to assist Jewish refugees but now helps individuals of all backgrounds. After initially supporting the summer enrichment program for high school ESOL students, Michelle was hired full time and ultimately spent six years with the organization.
Making headlines. Philadelphia media outlets highlighted Michelle’s efforts, as part of her HIAS work, to help resettle Afghan refugees following the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal. And, her story was chronicled in The Philadelphia Inquirer when she pushed the district to provide more translation services for speakers of rare languages after a 10-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, who spoke only his native Qʼeqchiʼ, became lost after a school day in 2023.
“In HIAS Pennsylvania’s graduating class of 2022, we had 20 students who earned over $2 million in scholarship money for college and all merit scholarships. It just speaks to how incredible and resilient immigrant students and newcomers are, having been in the U.S. for four years or less and not knowing English when they arrived.”
—Michelle Ferguson Shore
Newcomer program coordinator
Photography by Ryan S. Brandenberg
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Learn about the Teaching English to speakers of other languages MSEd.
