Meet the Newest Members of Our Team

~

Our team grew this semester! Symaria and Stephanie quickly settled into ALI’s tight-knit community, but we asked them some questions so you can get to know them too.

~

Symaria Fisher: Business Support Specialist

Symaria is a Kansas City native who earned her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Missouri. 

Symaria is happy to call KC home, but she is an adventurer and has traveled since she was an infant, first venturing to Guatemala to know the maternal side of her family. As a result, she is bilingual in Spanish and looks forward to conversing with ALI’s Spanish-speaking students and staff! She has also traveled to many big cities in the USA—her favorite is Seattle, Washington. 

Symaria has nurtured a passion for language learning, as she studied French for 6 years, basic Italian (helpful on her journey to Italy last summer!), and is planning to tackle American Sign Language & Mandarin next! 

When she’s not traveling, Symaria loves to read, go to concerts, museums, theme parks, hyper-fixate on tv shows/movies, spend time with her nieces, nephews, and 2 dogs, and talk about Harry Styles. She is also on the hunt for the best crab rangoon in the KC metro.

A random fun-fact about Symaria is that her ancestry DNA results indicated she’s 20 different ethnicities!

Symaria is excited to be working at UMKC and looking forward to her next overseas adventure, likely to Scotland and England!

~

Stephanie Krutz: English Instructor

Stephanie has loved language-learning and cultural studies her whole life. As the child of an immigrant, and as a long-time lover of international travel, she has always been a part of ESL/EFL communities. She recently returned from a Fulbright program in Uruguay in 2023, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to teach at the UMKC’S Applied Language Institute.

Her main goal as an instructor is to support and encourage her students in their language learning journeys (and the students love her already).

~

We’re so glad to have you both! —The Faculty, Staff, & Students at ALI