World Language Home
General Overview
School-Based Program
Customized Packages
Summer Language Camp
Song and Dance Programs
Meet Our WLP Staff
Contact WLP
Awards
Internship Opportunities
FAQ
A.C.E. Home
A.C.E. Corporate Info
A.C.E.
World
Language Programs
200 W. Mercer Street
Suite 108
Seattle, WA 98119
ph: (206) 217-9644
fax (206) 217-9643
Email WLP |
|
 |
| WORLD LANGUAGE PROGRAMS STAFF |
Maka Janikashvili
World Language Programs Director
Elaine Fowler
Coordinator for Greater Seattle Area
Marita Paly
Coordinator for Greater Tacoma Area
Nicole Mercier
Coordinator for Olympia
 |
Maka Janikashvili
World Language Programs Director
|
Marina 'Maka' Janikashvili is currently the Director of World Language Programs at the Associates Cultural Exchange, (A.C.E.), headquartered in Seattle, Washington. She joined A.C.E. in 2003 where she is now in charge of developing programs and supervising foreign language instruction at the secondary school level in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Gig Harbor and Olympia public schools. Maka also plays an instrumental role in arranging Summer Language Camps offered in collaboration with the Seattle Pubic Schools and the Middle Eastern Department at the University of Washington.
She graduated with honors with degrees from the Department of West European Languages and Literature at Tbilisi State University in the country of Georgia. She then continued her studies at the postgraduate level and earned her PhD in applied linguistics. Her linguistics thesis was a winner of the Tbilisi State University competition and was then submitted to the International Symposium at Tallinn State University, Prebaltics. She also graduated with French as a second language and subsequently spent a year living in Paris. In addition, Maka has ten years of experience teaching university students conversation skills, grammar, and applied linguistics.
She is the lead liaison between A.C.E. and its partner organization, One World Now. Dr. Janikashvili's duties and responsibilities include: 1) coordinating the language component of this program 2) selecting and supervising Arabic and Chinese teachers 3) overseeing the after-school curriculum offered in Seattle Public Schools (Garfield, Franklin Roosevelt, Rainer Beach and Cleveland) and 4) offering instruction and administrative supervision of language programs in Korean, Farsi, Arabic and Chinese summer camps. Within A.C.E., Janikashvili continues to support and promote cross-cultural relationships, open communications between cultures, and cultivates growing awareness of knowledge and learning on a worldwide basis.
Maka has worked with several international companies such as USAID, (project manager, strategic privatization in Georgia); Bob Walsh Enterprises, (Communications manager); International Gas Company, (Special projects Manger); and The Russian American Foundation, (Outreach Coordinator).
Maka Janikashvili was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia. Although Georgian is her native tongue, she is also fluent in English, French, and Russian.
 |
Elaine Fowler
Coordinator for Greater Seattle Area
|
Elaine Fowler is the Coordinator for WLP in the greater Seattle area for Associates in Cultural Exchange (A.C.E.). She began her career with A.C.E. in 1998. Ms. Fowler graduated from California State University in Chico with a degree in Art and Art History and minors in Business and Education.
Ms. Fowler is in charge of orchestrating foreign language classes in the area from Renton to Everett. She has also been actively involved in organizing celebrating cultural expression through school immersion weeks and summer camps in coordination with the YMCA.
Ms. Fowler was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey, until she attended high school in Southern California. She is currently living in Kirkland, where she has raised seven children, six of whom graduated from the University of Washington.
 |
Marita Paly
Coordinator for Greater Tacoma Area
|
Marita Paly is the Coordinator for WLP in the greater Tacoma area for Associates in Cultural Exchange (A.C.E). Mrs. Paly studied Education at the Universidad Femenina Sagrado Corazon in Lima, Peru. She also studied Tourism Education at the Schiphol Institute through the Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) and Rotterdam University in the Netherlands. She began working at A.C.E - WLP in 1994 as a Spanish teacher and then assumed the role of Regional Coordinator in 1999.
Mrs. Paly has been active in many non-profit organizations. She worked to help homeless children and orphans to find a home at the Asociación Enmanuel and Orfanato de Jesus María (Jesus and Mary Orphanage). She taught adults to read and write in Spanish and helped teenagers finish high school at the Centro Latino. She has also helped promote awareness of the Little Sisters Fund, which helps young Nepalese girls stay in school and avoid being susceptible to child labor, child marriage, and/or child trafficking.
She received the National Institute or Tourism Scholarship in Lima, Peru for hotel management, business administration, public relations, geography, history, and the construction of mileages. While in Lima, she also received the Aerotrafico Scholarship for graduate course work in mileage. For excellence in Spanish literature and culture she received a scholarship from the University of Salamanca in Spain. Air France awarded her with the Prive Scholarship for master in mileage and geography in Nice, France. She was also awarded the Raimondi Scholarship by Alitalia for educational tours in Rome, Italy.
Mrs. Paly was born and raised in Peru. She is third generation Japanese and speaks Spanish, English, Italian and 19th Century Japanese.
 |
Nicole Mercier
Coordinator for Olympia
|
Nicole Mercier is the Coordinator for WLP in the Olympia area for Associates in Cultural Exchange (A.C.E.). She began her career with A.C.E. in 2000.
After graduating high school in San Francisco, California, she traveled throughout Europe extensively twice for six month intervals. She settled in Paris, France, where she worked with numerous international organizations for eight and a half years. This experience served her education in international culture, language, art, administration, and promoted her interest in foreign language education in this country.
She is an active member with the Procession of the Species, which is an annual arts-based Earth Day celebration in Olympia, Washington. She is also serving as the President of the Board for Earthbound Productions, a non-profit organization that attempts to make cultural connections between communities and the natural world.
She is fluent in French and has lived in the Puget Sound area since 1990 with her husband, Don, and their sixteen-year-old daughter, Lisa. They love the beauty of this area and the opportunities that they have had to interact with many diverse cultures.
|
|
