Faculty Spotlight: Jessika Valentine
Jessika Valentine is a Florida State University alumna, a teaching faculty II member in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics Arabic program, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, and a 2025 Faculty/Staff Leadership Award winner. After attending Lebanese University and earning a bachelor’s degree in radio and television in 2007 and a bachelor’s in English language and literature in 2010, Valentine moved to the U.S. for the Fulbright Foreign Student Program’s foreign language teaching assistant program, earning her master’s in foreign and second language education from FSU in 2014. In 2024, Valentine published three Arabic short stories –– “Tala The Curious,” “My Travels and Dreams,” and “Beirut My City” –– designed to serve as learning tools for beginning Arabic learners.
Tell us a little about your background and what brought you to FSU.
After earning my bachelor’s degrees, I worked as an interpreter for a community policing program and as a freelance journalist in my small hometown of Zahle in Lebanon. I heard a radio advertisement about teaching in the U.S. through a Fulbright teaching assistantship –– it was calling my name. After earning the assistantship, I was placed at FSU, moved to the U.S., and decided to stay here for my master’s. The master’s program, which is now part of the Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, was the perfect intersection among several of my interests, including literature and Arabic culture, and exposed me to new teaching techniques. FSU helped me receive an education, earn a teaching position and be part of a community.
Break down your areas of interest for us.
My interests include women and gender studies in the Arab world and the Middle East, Arab cinema, female Arab pioneers and trailblazers, and Islamic and global south feminism. In addition to teaching, I write opinion and culture pieces as a freelance journalist in both Arabic and English.
What makes you passionate about studying and teaching the Arabic language?
My passion comes from my belief that there cannot be a full life without continuous learning. Each semester, I find myself more enthralled with the language, my students and teaching. Witnessing my students use their knowledge to communicate brings me so much joy. In addition to its rich culture, the depth, beauty, and organization of Arabic motivates me to keep digging into the language.
What inspired you to choose your field of study?
Upon graduating with my first bachelor’s, I chose to pursue journalism; I needed to understand my home country by amplifying its stories globally. After six years of working as a regional reporter in Lebanon for a national television network and going through an election, I wanted a new, more positive challenge. I began interpreting for a community policing program, which allowed me to rediscover my love for teaching.
Tell me about the three short stories you wrote in Arabic that were published through Florida State Open Publishing.
Most Arabic stories available for second-language learners are either very advanced or written for children with limited themes. My short stories are authentic, age, and level-appropriate stories for beginning and intermediate Arabic students. I drew inspiration from my experiences as a student and explored themes of immigration, employment, financial hardship, love, following one’s dreams and friendship.
I worked with many different people to secure funds, publish the books, record the stories, and create a website where the stories can be accessed for free. I’m grateful to modern languages and linguistics teaching faculty III Zafer Lababidi, former FSU foreign language teaching assistant Sally Manna, FSU’s Office of Distance Learning, CreateFSU, and Robert Manning Strozier Library faculty Camille Thomas and Matthew Hunter for their assistance in bringing these stories to life.
How do you expect these books to impact readers, especially those studying Arabic?
I hope people take these stories as an opportunity to learn, recycle what they already know, and to feel rewarded when they finish each piece. A lot of language learning is difficult, and people often feel discouraged to continue. With these stories, I hope to invigorate dormant learners of Arabic to read more and use their language skills.
What do you want the public to know about the importance of your work?
As a specialized teaching faculty, I teach both Arabic language and cultural courses, like Arab women trailblazers and Arabic film and culture. Both types of classes are critical in bridging cultural gaps and equipping students with the communicative skills and cultural awareness to understand the world. Arts and languages allow us to step outside of our own lives and into someone else’s. This empathy is needed to broaden students’ thinking and shape long-term success.
What is your favorite part of teaching at FSU?
The scope and space that FSU encompasses, like the breadth of research and the culture in Tallahassee, are some of my favorite parts about teaching here. Both as a teacher and a student, FSU has connected me with a community while allowing me to benefit from the university’s collective knowledge, skills and available opportunities.
Do you have any exciting upcoming projects or goals you’re working toward?
This summer, I’m writing a new collection of short stories and challenging myself to use techniques I haven’t tried before, like more elaborate themes and methods.
In the future, I’m still very interested in seeking a doctorate in educational leadership, poetry or educational psychology. In the meantime, growth as an academic and a human is my top priority.
If your students only learned one thing from you (of course, hopefully they learn much more than that), what would you hope it to be?
Now more than ever, students need to allow new and different ideas to lead them to new perspectives. Technology is moving faster than people, and new generations must find answers and solutions to emerging problems. The only constant is change, and therefore, our best solution is to adapt.