ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ professors Brian James Baer, Ph.D., and Theresa Minick of the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies have been awarded two federal government STARTALK grants, totaling $225,000, to support the Regents Foreign Language Academy, a summer language immersion program for Ohio high school students and K-12 teachers.
The four-week student program, housed in ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ’s Honors College, targets new learners of Chinese and Russian from high schools across the state of Ohio. For 10 days, the academy hosts a professional development program for K-12 teachers of these languages who have the opportunity to observe and teach in the student program.
The summer session of the student academy is followed by an academic-year component consisting of monthly on-site sessions supported by online instruction. Students receive five college credits upon successful completion of the program.
The student academy was founded in 2007 with a generous grant from the Ohio Board of Regents. Since 2008, the academy has been funded by the federal government’s STARTALK program. STARTALK is a presidential initiative that seeks to expand and improve the teaching of strategically important world languages that are not now widely taught in the United ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵs. The Teacher Leadership Academy was founded in 2010.
Many alumni of the Foreign Language Academy have continued to study these languages in colleges and universities across the United ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵs and to pursue a variety of careers requiring proficiency in a foreign language.
For more information about the Foreign Language Academy at ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ, visit www.kent.edu/mcls/fla.
For more information about ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ’s Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, visit www.kent.edu/mcls.
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Media Contacts:
Brian Baer, bbaer@kent.edu, 330-672-2150
Emily Vincent, evincen2@kent.edu, 330-672-8595