Jennifer Lightfoot is an instructor in the UBC Vantage College Academic English Program (AEP), teaching academic writing and language courses for first year undergraduate students studying in the Faculties of Arts and Science. Before moving to Vancouver in 2016 to teach at UBC, Jennifer taught in the English for Academic Purposes Department at Niagara College Canada in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She holds an MA in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics from Kings College London and has English language teaching and research experience within Canada and the UK with English as an additional language (EAL) learners in post secondary and elementary education contexts. Jennifer is committed to creating stimulating, learner centered environments which fully engage students in their language learning trajectories. She is passionate about understanding the importance of effectively preparing students for higher education and strives to create learning environments which help develop students comprehension, critical analysis and communication. She has two main current research interests: exploring strategies for rephrasing exam questions to help aid student understanding, and investing the experiences of first year international students participating in course embedded community engaged learning. Her overall goal with this collaborative research is to ideally foster greater awareness of EAL student needs across a large range of instructors and institutions, ensuring that EAL students are provided with curriculum, including instruction and assessments, which meet their needs as they transition into first year university.