Academic Enrichment Program

NYUAD's Academic Enrichment Program (AEP) is an academic program designed to help prepare Emirati students to succeed as fully matriculated students in a liberal arts and research university.

The program focuses on the developing quantitative, linguistic, and argumentation skills through three thematically integrated courses that scaffold learning and provide solid preparation for student engagement in the liberal arts curriculum. The Academic Enrichment Program mentors students as they negotiate the transition to the university. AEP also works with students to enhance individual academic and cultural experiences while also giving them a sense of personal accomplishment and growth.

Emerging Scholars Program

The Emerging Scholars Program is under the purview of the Academic Enrichment Program. It is a program for non-matriculated students identified by NYUAD Admissions as potential candidates for admission who were hindered during their application process. These students attend AEP and NYUAD courses and apply for full admission to NYUAD during the fall semester. Emerging Scholars Program students must attend a Candidate Weekend and receive the recommendations from AEP and NYUAD faculty.

Both programs focus on the developing reading, writing, discussion, and research skills through four thematically integrated courses: Identities and Metamorphoses, Identity, Global Discoveries and Dialogues: The Quill and the Chisel or Histories of – and in – Greece, and Journeys and Emancipations. Each course is designed to encourage students to critically consider and articulate essential questions that underpin content areas through critical and close readings, seminar discussions, student-led discussions, and academic presentations with a substantial emphasis on writing and argumentation (journals, blogs, personal essays, critical responses, argumentative essays, and research).

Angelyn Hilgendorf is the director and a lecturer in the Academic Enrichment and Emerging Scholars Programs. As a specialist in education, ESL, literature, and creative writing, she has extensive experience understanding student needs and designing curriculum. She is interested in the intersection between literature, analytical and creative writing, and English language learning as a means of cultural preservation and expression. Angelyn has experience teaching in the Middle East for a number of years developing curricular needs centered on literature and English language development.  

Her previous work experience includes teaching ESL within several colleges at Vanderbilt University (Owen School of Business, the Vanderbilt Medical Center, and the Center for English Language.)  Additionally, she worked at the University of Bahrain and assisted in the initial study for the launch of the American Center, at the Sukhair Campus and AMIDEAST in Bahrain. She taught English for over fifteen years at the high school level in the college preparatory, AP, and IB systems, including The University School of Nashville, The John Cooper School, and the Bahrain Bayan School. At the University School of Nashville, Angelyn sponsored and edited nine consecutive volumes of USN’s student-based literary journal, The Gallery.

Angelyn graduated magna cum laude from the University of Tennessee double majoring in English and Spanish with a concentration in literature and language acquisition. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching with a specialization in education, literature, and ESL at Duke University. Her research specifically focuses on student development and curriculum within literature, English language education, and Arab Women’s Literature.

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