About
Team Members:
Marge Andrews, Mike Arnot, José García Sánchez, Tomoko Kimura, Marin Laufenberg, Chiu Hsin Lin, Miguel Novella, Gina Petrie, Florian Preisig, Sara Preisig, José Rojas, Erina Romanowich, Stephanie Roulet Hormann, Natalia Ruiz-Rubio, Parker Shaw, Amorette Sherwood, Jody Stewart Strobelt, and Vickie Roig
It is with great satisfaction that I nominate the English as a Second Language, French, German, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish programs in the Department of Modern Languages for the CALE Team Excellence Award.
This team of professionals has been able to work collaboratively and congenially toward the attainment of different goals at EWU, mainly related to the representation of International Studies at our university. In an environment of respect and deference to the different cultures that this global and inclusive team represents, they have been working towards achieving various academic and cultural objectives.
Throughout the past two years, all the members of the Department have been working productively to incorporate each of the second-year courses in Modern Languages into the Breadth Area Core Requirements (BACRs) in Humanities and Arts. In order to unify criteria and set the PLOs in their respective majors and minors, every one of the team members worked diligently within tight deadlines to submit to CPAC all the second-year courses. One of the features of this team is that many of the instructors are Lecturers and they had to dedicate their time to integrate their classes into the GERs, which went well beyond their regular teaching load.
In addition to providing strong course offerings during the academic year, the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures has consistently housed Summer Study Abroad Programs which are distinguished by the experience, quality and expertise of the faculty who lead them, fostering the success of those students who travel abroad, often for the first time, and study a language other than English. Passau in Germany, Salamanca in Spain, Nice in France, and Oaxaca in Mexico programs which have had representation in this Department in recent years.
The preparation of these programs requires a tremendous amount of work and dedication during the entire year, from planning and preparation beginning the previous fall to the actual trip in the summer, which implies the complete dedication and attention of the faculty member to the students on the program. The vulnerability of these kind of programs to terrorism, domestic security, and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, has demonstrated the level of responsibility borne by the faculty directors whenever there is an adverse situation, as well as the commitment of the programs to the safety and well-being of our students.
Faculty have risen to the challenges with which they have been faced and have worked tirelessly to meet the needs of those students affected.
Not only has this team of people been willing to work among themselves professionally toward academic goals, but they have all been involved at different levels with increasing the promotion of extra-curricular international activities at EWU such as Día de los Muertos, Chinese New Year and the Bauhaus project.
In addition to these activities, which enrich the global breadth of offerings at EWU, each of the programs has been able to reach out to different departments to work interdisciplinarily on a variety of projects. Our faculty collaborate regularly with other colleagues in different programs such as History, Chicano Studies, Social Work, Engineering, Art, etc.
The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures developed a pioneer project 20 years ago at EWU, initiating the Advanced Language Program in the high schools, which has served as a model for different Departments across the University to expand offerings in the high schools. All the coordinators have been able to manage busy agendas with regular meetings, peer observations and constant communication with the high school teachers in order to establish and maintain a community of global citizens in the Spokane area and beyond.
I would like to thank all this team for their unwavering support and encouragement towards each other and the students, providing opportunities to study abroad, supporting collaboration with the high school teachers, engaging with other Departments, and providing appreciation for other cultures.