Ovations

Dr. Laura Spinu 

Laura Spinu, Associate Professor

Laura Spinu has been a faculty member in the Communications and Performing Arts department since fall 2017. Her recent promotion to associate professor accentuates her unwavering dedication to her students. “My journey so far has been exciting, challenging, and incredibly rewarding,” said Laura. “KCC gave me the opportunity to get involved in a number of programs from the get-go: the CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP), student mentoring, research collaborations with my colleagues, organizing the CUNY-wide Language, Society & Culture conference earlier this year, and the Speech Club.”

Her desire to kickstart a separate research program called K-CORE (Kingsborough Collaborative Research & Conference Bootcamp) was inspired by her students, who she finds incredibly stimulating learners and thinkers. In less than two years, her student mentees delivered 21 presentations on original research in psycholinguistics at professional conferences, online and in-person (in San Diego in the USA, and abroad, in Greece).

“My students have been a part of the International Symposium on Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, the Northwest Linguistics Conference, three meetings of the Acoustical Society of America, and the annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, to name a few,” she said. “Learning comes easy to them and being in a position to teach them is a very inspiring and humbling experience. Our students striving to reach their potential makes the world appear like a place of hope, whose best days are yet to come. It is truly a privilege to be witnessing this day after day, and probably the most rewarding part of being a teacher!”

Laura found the promotional process to be direct. “Professional and career steps tend to be nerve-racking, but it was extremely helpful to me that the promotion process was transparent, with clear requirements outlined in the faculty handbook as well as in the institutional level meetings that I participated in,” she recalls. “Most importantly, I benefited from generous support and guidance from our department chair, senior colleagues, and Ms. Barbara Fairweather in Academic Affairs.”

Laura has a deep love for the students and their immense potential. “As a research mentor, I have experienced numerous times the delight of seeing novice students go through various stages of growth in order to achieve their potential,” she adds.

She remains connected on Linkedin to former students now practicing in their careers of choice. “My students have gone on to become speech pathologists, psychologists, computer scientists or graduate students in various fields. Knowing that they all started out here, at KCC, makes me feel very fortunate as a small part of so many amazing stories of success!” What Laura also loves about KCC is the campus, particularly the beach, the sculpture courtyard and the art museum (KAM). “Just outside of Kingsborough, crossing the pedestrian bridge to Shore Boulevard on my way to school was - and I trust will soon be again - one of the highlights of my day.”

Her students, colleagues and department are all close to her heart and keep her coming back to Kingsborough. “My department stands out for its collegial environment in which I felt welcome and supported since day one. My former chair Dr. Gordon Alley-Young deserves special recognition as he was a huge part of this, as do Ms. Judy Cohen, Dr. Cindy Greenberg, Dr. Lili Shi, and the amazing Dr. Maureen Minielli, who was the first KCC contact I ever had, and one who has left the most impactful mark,” she said.

Outside of her department, Laura has established strong ties with colleagues from the art department and behavioral sciences. “Together, we have co-founded a faculty research support group (the IGNITERS) to help us navigate the challenges brought about by the pandemic.” In her personal time, she enjoys discovering new activities, especially those that contribute to personal growth.

She also spends time in nature and with animals, hiking, reading, drawing, and cooking, especially with friends. As an active member of foreign language conversation groups, she speaks French and Spanish (other than her native tongue, Romanian) and never misses an opportunity to practice them. “Some of my more sporadic activities include running and taking flying lessons. I completed six full marathons between 2009-2014, and I am currently trying to motivate myself to get back into it. It will be much easier when I start teaching in-person again and have KCC to jog to each day!”