Valbona Zylo Watkins earned her Doctorate from Pennsylvania State University in 2010. Dr. Watkins has been teaching Spanish language part-time for three years at CSI. She has over ten years experience teaching Spanish at the college level. Although Dr. Watkins’ background is in Latin American Literature, the past few years she has focused more in the teaching aspect of her career. Particularly, Valbona’s interest is teaching foreign language with technology. She strives to use various technology innovations since these have revolutionized the approaches to teaching foreign languages. By incorporating technology she believes that students become more independent in their learning of foreign languages, as well as inter-culturally competent. When Valbona is not teaching Spanish, she dedicates her time to the Albanian- American community. She serves as Vice President of “Alba Life”, a non-profit organization, and is Director of Curriculum for the Albanian language school with campuses in Staten Island and Brooklyn. Valbona is married and has two young daughters, Dea and Emma.
