Our Liaison from the District of Columbia is Ms. Ewa Zeoli.
The Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools is excited to invite you to participate in its 11th annual conference! This conference brings together everyone who is interested in learning about and collaborating with community-based HL schools. Attendees typically include directors and administrators of community-based HL schools, teachers, members of the language communities, representatives of public schools, researchers in the field of HL education, and leaders of national language organizations.
This event will be hybrid, held both on site at American University in Washington, DC and online on October 4-5, 2024. Please explore the conference website, learn about the plenary speakers, and register here! Feel free to share the conference Facebook event as well as LinkedIn event widely and invite your colleagues! If you would like to receive announcements about future events and conferences from the Coalition, sign up for their newsletter.
Folklore Expedition in Moldova
Looking for mid-winter adventure? You’re invited to join a folklore expedition to document the folk drama ”Tsar Maximilian” performed house-to-house in Moldovan villages as part of the winter festival “Malanca.”
You’ll capture the action in the January snow as troupes of young actors bring this old folk drama to their neighbors. You’ll record the dialog, songs, dances, music, sword fights, splendid costumes and ad-libbed local jokes. You’ll interview the performers and the locals who grew up with this tradition.
Your expedition will be led by established scholars who have years of experience working in Moldova with foreign volunteers.
No special skills needed. Knowledge of Romanian is helpful, but not required. Expedition volunteers pay a fee which covers the cost of their room, board and transportation during the expedition, plus a share of staff expenses. The expedition runs January 9-20, 2025, starting and ending in Chișinău, Moldova.
See the details at the PREEEF website.
See and hear footage from our 2019 Malanca expedition.
World Language Education Assistance Program
United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), House Co-Chair of the America’s Languages Caucus, introduced the World Language Education Assistance Program (or World LEAP) Act (H.R. 5603) to establish a first-of-its-kind world language and dual language education grants program for K-12 schools.
Specifically, the World LEAP Act would establish at the U.S. Department of Education a multi-year grant program to allow school districts to establish, improve, and carry out projects that improve and expand world language or dual language programs. The legislation would also provide professional development opportunities for world language educators that are sustained, intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, and classroom-focused while supporting pathways for paraprofessionals to gain educator certifications and licenses.
“Developing this legislation with Congressman Panetta’s office has been an honor,” said Amanda Seewald, Executive Director of the Joint National Committee for Languages and National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS). “We are thrilled to see the World Language Education Assistance Program (World LEAP) Act introduced to nationalize the crucial discussion of language education as an essential facet of K-12 learning in the United States.
The World LEAP Act will establish the first K-12 world language and dual language education grants program at the U.S. Department of Education in over 14 years. This important legislation prioritizes funding for the development of programs offered across all socio-economic and demographic groups, builds opportunity for heritage and English language learners, requires a reservation of funds for professional development, and promotes career pathways that will generate economic success for our nation. JNCL-NCLIS proudly endorses the World LEAP Act and is grateful to Congressman Panetta for his leadership.”
NEW GRANT FOR LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTERS -due February 25, 2022
DOD grant available to institutions of higher education to sponsor Language Training Centers to address language training needs of military and other national security personnel. The Language Training Center (LTC) Program is a DoD-funded initiative established in 2011 to accelerate the development of foundational or higher-level expertise in strategic languages and regional studies for DoD personnel by leveraging U.S. institutions of higher education to meet the existing and demonstrated training needs of DoD units, offices, or agencies
The link for information, guidelines, and eligibility is: https://www.dodltc.org/2022-request-proposal. This grant opportunity is an initiative of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO). Deadline for application is: February 25, 2022, 4:30 pm EST
NEW GRANT ANNOUNCEMENT MCASP & WLARP -due April 8, 2022
Notice of Funding Opportunity the FY22 DoDEA Grants to Military-Connected Local Educational Agencies for Academic and Support Programs (MCASP) and the World Language Advancement and Readiness Program Grant (WLARP) is now available for application on grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=337732
The DoDEA relies on one true vision: “Excellence in Education for Every Student, Every Day, Everywhere.” The grant program beautifully showcases this vision in so many ways. Through our grant program we are building partnerships with public schools and other community organizations that will help military connected students be college and career ready. The goal of our grant program is ensure that children from military families have access to quality educational opportunities. Any Local Education Agency (LEA) awarded a grant under this announcement must use the funds to support programs that can be continued beyond the grant period and demonstrate approaches that could be disseminated to and duplicated in other LEAs. Awarded projects must provide a written project narrative and a detail budget table which identifies which program (either MCASP or WLARP) the LEA is applying for funding to implement under this announcement. Additionally, all projects awarded under this funding opportunity must include a professional development component. DoDEA intends to award multiple grants, subject to the availability of funds. Each individual grant award will be a minimum of $500,000.00 and may be up to a maximum of $2,000,000, for a period of up to five (5) years.
Applications are due Friday, April 8, 2022. Technical assistance webinar information is included in the announcement. If you have questions, dodea.grants@dodea.edu