Christina Huhn, Department of Foreign Languages, served as moderator on February 23 for a panel titled "Advocating for Extended Study and WL Teachers in PA: Strengthening the Pipeline," formed as part of a month-long effort in support of Advocacy Month during February 2021 by the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association.
The panel included faculty in world languages from IUP and Shippensburg University, K-12 teachers from around the state, as well as two IUP Spanish education students (Maddison Hendricks, BSEd'21, Spanish and music education; and Faith Deegan '21, Spanish education). The shortage of world language teachers and enrollments in language study at all levels in Pennsylvania are key issues (despite a clear demand and need for language skills and workplace demands), and panelists generated a number of ideas for short-term and long-term responses to attempt to address this challenge.