About the Center

Janna directs and manages the Five College Center for World Languages' programs and curricular development projects, supervises the Center's staff, and administers the Center’s initiatives. Janna contributes to the overall leadership of Five College academic programs and serves on the UMass Amherst International Studies Council and the board of the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs.

Kendra provides educational, logistical, and administrative support for the Center's Supervised Independent Language Program courses.

Karla conducts individual tutorials and small group conversation sessions with students in elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels of Hindi and Urdu.

Anca trains and mentors the Center's foreign language teaching assistants (FLTAs) and conversation partners.

Theo provides educational, logistical, and administrative support for the Center's Mentored language and Arabic dialect courses.

Agnes conducts individual tutorials and small group conversation sessions with students in elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels of Swahili and mentors the Center's Swahili teaching assistant. She is a member of the Five College African Studies Council.

Merve Polat is the Turkish language mentor and conducts individual tutorials and small group conversation sessions for Turkish students at all levels. Merve is also a doctoral student in the Language, Literacy and Culture program in the College of Education at UMass Amherst.

Zahra Shah Mohammady is the Persian language mentor and conducts individual tutorials and small group conversation sessions for Turkish students at all levels. Zahra is also a master's student in the UMass Amherst Department of Architecture.

Professor Elizabeth H.D. Mazzocco was the founding director of the Five College Supervised Independent Language Program and the Mentored Language Program. After receiving her PhD, Elizabeth taught Italian at the University of Pennsylvania (1988-89), and at Mt. Holyoke College (1989-90); in 1990 she was appointed Five College Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian and Director of the then Five College Foreign Language Resource Center, a role in which she served until her death in 2014. Under her directorship, the Center gained worldwide recognition for research on the advancement of language pedagogy.

After earning a PhD in religion from Princeton University, Dr. Amy Wordelman became deeply involved in the operation and success of the language center beginning in 1997, first as a program assistant, then assistant, associate and interim director and, from 2016 until her death in 2018, director of the center. In more than two decades with Five Colleges, Dr. Wordelman was involved with admissions, advising, curriculum development, technology development, special project management—nearly every aspect of the center.