Initiatives in Pennsylvania
Language in Motion at Juniata College
Language in Motion (LiM) at Juniata College was founded in 2000 and is now a nationwide consortium of 15 colleges and universities. Language in Motion is a community-based, service-learning program for college students who know another language and/or culture to share that knowledge and their excitement about it in local K-12 classrooms. Presenters attend a series of five training workshops and conference with the instructor about their presentation plans before going to the schools, with opportunities to reflect on their learning throughout the process and afterward.
Language in Motion has been offering presentations about Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese) and areas where these are spoken in schools nearly every year since 2001. Although no school that LiM serves offers Chinese, there have been approximately 500 presentations about China and Chinese reaching students in over 140 teachers’ classes in several contexts: elementary schools from kindergarten through grade 6; other language classes; Asian Studies; World Cultures, Geography, or History; Economics; Law; Music; Reading; and even Biology and Math.
Language in Motion owns a small library of books, language-teaching materials, and realia to loan to presenters and teachers. LiM covers the cost of getting the materials to the teacher; the teacher pays for the return postage. Our Chinese collection is currently small but includes some professional teaching journals with articles about Chinese, some Chinese fairytales for children, and several children’s books in English based on Chinese stories.
When external funding is available, Language in Motion also offers professional development opportunities for teachers and college faculty. LiM has sent teachers to study abroad in short-term immersion programs in Canada, France, Germany, Guatemala, and Russia and provides partial scholarships for high school language and culture teachers to attend state, regional, and national conferences in their fields. In addition, every year or two since 2005, LiM has hosted a two-day Language and Culture Teaching Institute in August at Juniata College, bringing together area teachers and college faculty along with guest speakers from other areas to share their professional expertise and classroom savvy.
Language in Motion has received funding from a NAFSA COOP grant for the pilot year, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and several Pennsylvania businesses, including, most recently, several years’ gracious support from Lititz Mutual Insurance Co.
Web: http://www.juniata.edu/academics/departments/international/language-in-motion/
PaCIE and Asia Institute Scholarships
The Asia Institute’s Scholarship Partnership with PaCIE
The Pennsylvania Council for International Education and the Asia Institute are proud to announce new joint-scholarships, which will increase the global awareness and competencies of students studying at universities and colleges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. These scholarships will support students pursuing global research, internships and study abroad programs in Asia.
More information: https://pacie.org/global-education-scholarships
