University of North Carolina Archives

A. Madhu Babu

Mr. Madhu Babu is a teacher and trainer of the English language at the Z.P. High School, Brahmanatarla, Andhra Pradesh and an e-content developer for the State Council for Education Research and Training, Andhra Pradesh (APSCERT). In his extensive teaching experience of 27 years, he has developed several classroom videos and conducted workshops on career guidance, life skills, and communication skills for students and teachers. His classroom practices are fun-filled, student-friendly, and designed to help students tackle real-world challenges. In recognition of his role in improving communication skills among children from rural areas in India, Mr. Babu received the National Best Teacher Award in 2020. He has a master’s in English and a bachelor’s in education. He also has a diploma in ELT from the Regional Institute of English, Bengaluru.

Through his participation in the prestigious Fulbright TEA program, Mr. Babu is exploring the role of teaching strategies in promoting employability skills among students. Upon his return to India at the end of the program, he hopes to share the insights gained during his stay in the U.S. with his students and colleagues.

Aadil Zeffer Sofi

Mr. Aadil Zeffer is a PhD candidate in English at Lovely Professional University, a private university in Jalandhar in the state of Punjab. He has two master’s degrees — in English from Central University of Kashmir and in Urdu from Maulana Azad National Urdu University. He was an English trainer for three years at a technical and vocational college in Saudi Arabia. He earned Cambridge certified CELTA and took courses in learning Spanish, Italian, and French.

Mr. Zeffer is an author of a book An Educational Supplement. His second book Convergence, which will be published soon focuses on uniting our collective spirit. He is also working on a book on Postmodern Gothic which is his thrust area. He has published several research papers in international as well as UGC care-listed journals.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he will use innovative teaching methods aiming to improve the linguistic ability of foreign language learners and this endeavor in turn, will enrich his pedagogical skills. He believes that the Fulbright FLTA program provides a wonderful platform for teaching learning experience and cultural exchange. He plans to use this Fulbright experience in his future academic and teaching assignments.

Fatima Ghazali

Ms. Fatima Ghazali completed her bachelor’s and master’s in English literature from Patna University, where she was awarded the Merit Certificate for being a rank-holder. After completing her master’s, she qualified the UGC National Eligibility Test in English, with a percentile score of 99.56. She has taught English as a second language, both at secondary school and undergraduate levels.

Ms. Ghazali enjoys writing. She wrote a research article titled “British Imperialism and the Woman: A Feminist Reading of the Native and the White Female”, which was published in Patna University Students’ Journal Iris. Her Letters to the Editor have been published in a leading national newspaper, The Indian Express. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in English literature on the topic of the postcolonial Muslim woman and the relationship between their literary representations and colonial narratives.

As a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Ms. Ghazali is teaching Hindi and Urdu at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She believes that learning new languages opens numerous avenues and makes one more informed as well as more empathetic. Therefore, she feels honored to act as the conduit between not just two different languages, but also two separate worlds. The U.S. is a melting pot of cultures from around the world and Ms. Ghazali hopes to learn and experience myriad new things during her time there as an FLTA.