President's Message
Whew! The Spring NERALLT Meeting at Wesleyan University was so packed with thought-provoking and informative presentations that it's taken us some while to recover and to assemble this Newsletter. (Of course, the busy end-of-year syndrome may also have contributed.)

with sessions that the networking side of NERALLT suffered a bit. Fear not, however, because we agreed as a group in our business meeting that we would build in more 'free' time for future conferences.

The range of ideas presented, from Joel Goldfield's discussion of the uses of Geographical Information Systems in language learning to Professor Vaget's presentation of her principled incorporation of multimedia student projects into advanced French Seminars, all made it quite obvious that an era of instructional technology has taken hold in a very healthy way.

NERALLT is also beginning to 'practice what it preaches,' what with the Thursday Workshop virtual cake presentation to Otmar Foelsche using Dartmouth's own jabber server. This virtual approach will be pushed even further with our Spring '09 'meeting', which we expect to have in as many as three different places at once, again using Dartmouth's server. This decision was made largely because of a desire not to conflict with the travel needs of our members who would also be attending IALLT. This collaborative 'Web 2.0' nature seems to be filtering back into our organizational mission, in that we will be sharing a conference in the Fall of 2009 with NEALLT in New Haven.

On a more somber note, we have just been informed that Maria Montzolis of Yale has passed away. Her involvement with NERALLD and NERALLT since 1996 will be sorely missed.

-Dick    

In This Issue . . .
President's Message.......................................1
NERALLT's Spring 2008 Conference................2
NERALLT's Spring 2008 Business Meeting.......5
Spring Conference Attendee List.....................8
Interview with John Graves............................9
In Memorium’ÄîMaria Montzolis.....................12

NERALLT'S SPRING CONFERENCE
“Language Learning in Action: Moving Images in Digital World” (Wesleyan University May 1-2, 2008)

Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret, Emily Wentworth, Mark Knowles, Audrey Sartiaux

Spring sunshine and a warm welcome from Emmanuel Paris Bouvret, our host at Wesleyan, along with Sergei Bunaev, in the Language Resource Center greeted NERALLT members for the Thursday afternoon workshops. No sooner had Emily Wentworth and Mark Knowles, the conference co-chairs, put up posters and a hasty lunch been arranged in Emmanuel's office, than 20 or so NERALLT folks suddenly appeared from all points on the compass ready and eager. Phil Isaacs and Emmanuel gave a bright overview of Kalliope and Flash Media Server, which we could have explored all afternoon, but intricate behind-the-scenes timing meant we had to move right into the Jabber workshop run by Thomas Garbelotti and ably assisted by Jason Nash. With Otmar Foelsche anchoring back on the Dartmouth campus, Tom and Jason demonstrated how Jabber can enable us to work together instantaneously over the web. In a very short time numerous laptops around the room were vying for talk and screen time with Otmarsometimes with 3-way video screen-sharing going on at once. In addition to voice and video, Jabber allows for file sharing and remote desktop access. This makes the whole process of sharing ideas and data very simple.

However, Jabber technology is still far from being a teleporting device allowing us to share concrete objects. For that reason, a bit of teamwork and ingenuity were in order so we could carry out an “iSalute to Otmar,” celebrating his upcoming retirement.

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A huge tiramisu cake was brought in to the workshop in CT and duly viewed on screen from NH by Otmar.

Not content to let Otmar watch us eat cake (or watch Otmar let us eat cake?!), we briefly muted his feed and signaled to a Dartmouth colleague who was soon seen knocking on Otmar's door and presenting him with his own cake! We all enjoyed sharing real and virtual cakes, and the joy of the communal experience. It made for quite an upbeat and successful start to our conference. Afterwards, we ambled over to Downey House lounge for wine & cheese and good cheer. The Board met briefly and then most everyone headed a few blocks downtown to Luce's in Middletown to renew friendships and continue lively conversations over dinner.

In spite of duller skies on Friday, nearly sixty people made their way to the Woodhead Lounge in the Exley Science Center from 7 states, 24 different colleges and universities, and 4 secondary schools. After a warm welcome by Krishna Winston, Wesleyan's Dean of Arts and Humanities, and opening remarks by NERALLT President Dick House, we launched into a formidable array of presentations. Using clips from Harry Potter films, “French in Action”,

Dr Joel Goldfield

links to Googlemaps, GIS, and multimedia materials, Dr. Joel Goldfield illustrated the “portkey” concept and transported our minds to 19th century Paris and back in his Keynote address.

His use of maps with video links and an interdisciplinary approach brought metropolitan Paris population density statistics alive and demonstrated how French language learners, along with students studying history and social studies, made strides together to gain a greater sense of place and cultural sophistication.

Dr. Elizabeth Langran and Jenn Cirino, also from Farifield U., brought us back to earth with a hands-on demonstration of the ease with which one can use iMovie to put together photos and audio to stunning effect.

Dr. Elizabeth Langran and Jenn Cirino

By taking us through the process of building a movie on the spot, Liz and Jenn had the audience busy scribbling and taking notes. The simplicity and elegance of the student clips of an illustrated poem about loneliness and of the use of random holiday shots to illustrate a dream of Italy were impressive.

From shots of Michelangelo's David, we moved on to “J-dating”. Shiri Goren, lector of Modern Hebrew at Yale, started out the CLS presentation with an account of the various assignments she has set for her students requiring use of video cameras and iMovie editing, which include preparing personal video moments for an online dating concept.

Shiri Goren

The student clips showed us that students enjoy learning a language by acting as they reflect about themselves, who they are, who they want to be, how they want to be seen, and whom they want to date.

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Making a successful dating video meant going beyond the technology to find appropriate means of expression and understanding cultural differences. Because these were “peer-reviewed” assignments, student motivation and engagement seemed to be extremely high. Shiri was impressed with the types of gains students make in their language use, although no formal assessment has been made in terms of on-task time versus student performance.

Robin Ladouceur, Foreign Language Resource Specialist at the Yale CLS, and liaison for Modern Hebrew, explained the extensive planning that goes into such a collaborative project.

Robin Ladouceur

Mark Sanford, Sr. Multimedia Technician at the CLS, followed with an overview of the video kits, replete with the external microphones, microphone stands, and other handy equipment he prepares for language faculty for their video projects, with many useful recommendations for us in attendance at the conference.

Images are powerful. We all know that. We all use them in our teaching or work environment to communicate ideas, thoughts, or simple vocabulary. Moving images add another dimension to expressing thoughts and ideas, and allow for a deeper kind of communication. In Friday's proceedings we saw it clearly portrayed at the conference, Web 2.0 tools and applications are making us enablers of better and deeper communication by allowing us and our students to harness the power of the moving image without any long and strenuous training. Creating your own video, well, it's now child's play- so easy even a kid can do it and they do. In the safe environment of the Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School, Kathleen Ruiz and Viria Kopp fully integrate videos from YouTube into their Spanish language teaching. But beyond finding relevant videos, they truly transform the learning process into a creative one by making students author their own videos in the target language,

Kathleen Ruiz and Viria Kopp

which they then share with the rest of the world by posting them (using anonymous number-coded titles) to YouTube. This is the power of Web 2.0: instant connectivity, instant sharing, and instant feedback. With a rollicking “One Semester Spanish” Love Song video to close the morning's presentations, we pushed back our chairs and headed to lunch.

After lunch discussions, schmoozing, and NERALLT business, Dr. Miri Nakamura brought us back to the video screen and showed us that integrating video does not always lead to instant understanding.

Dr. Miri Nakamura

She showed a Japanese YouTube video, which was about teaching someone how to make another person angry, but was in essence meant as a joke. People laughed a bit at the repetition of the words, but did not really understand it. She had to explain, for those among us who were unfamiliar with Japanese work ethics, why it was so funny. In short, while foreign images are powerful communication tools, interpreting them requires understanding of cultural backgrounds and differences, and that is when the professor's intervention is essential. The use of videos helps to make students better aware that speaking a language and communicating are not one and the same. To truly communicate, one needs to understand how important it is to learn about the other's culture and that laughter can certainly be a great help in achieving this.

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Professor Nicole Vaget from Mount Holyoke College next regaled us with tales from the frontlines of teaching senior French major language seminars. For many in attendance it was heartening to see an upperlevel course presented at a conference where the focus is often on the first two or three years of a curriculum.

Dr. Nicole Vaget and Shaoping Moss

Professor Vaget has shelved the “final written paper” and whole-heartedly embraced digital story-telling for final student projects. Her students work assiduously with tech mentors such as Shaoping Moss to hone their skills in all aspects of iMovie and the assemblage of their carefully researched cultural materials. Embedding images of authentic posters, news clips, photos, manuscripts, and other realia along with period music, careful scripting, and much-practised pronunciation for the narration, the students are involved in their projects far more than they ever would have been by typing a term paper. These rich examples of student work showed how much technology has offered an opening for the types of homework assignments that lead to improvements in language learning simultaneously with the learning of literature and culture from earlier centuries.

The closing presentation by Michael Jones on how to use images to showcase one's language resource center provided a wealth of jaw-droppingly beautiful images for us to contemplate. It was a fitting moment to show how the talents and accomplishments of teachers and students can be displayed in a continuous loop that, as a video project in itself, in turn highlights the resources and ingenuity of whole departments, and indeed the culturally diverse activities of an entire campus that is exploring language and culture across time and space.

Michael Jones

As we moved to wrap things up, our minds were full of memorable images, new ways of working with students and faculty, and innovative ideas to support language learning and the mission of our centers and to connect in person with colleagues. We did not disappoint Dick and kept to the timeline laid down for our own moving, storied day of presentations. Many thanks go to Emmanuel for the seamless transitions as one laptop after another was plugged in at the podium. From 2nd graders to senior language majors, we covered them all.

Left to Right (Top): Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret, Marisa Castagno, John Graves, Mark Knowles

We were transported with delight and enthralled from one presentation as it segued into the next. All in all, a very well-organized conference with a stellar cast of presenters and professional material, and a very appreciative audience. Thanks to all for making NERALLT at Wesleyan Spring '08 a great success!

- By Emily Wentworth, with contributions from Mark Knowles and Audrey Sartiaux.

Conference Survey Results

Twenty-eight conference participants provided feedback on their experiences and the consensus was overwhelmingly positive!

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•96% agreed or strongly agreed that the program provided a good mix of approaches to the topic

•75% strongly agreed that the content was relevant to their day-to-day work

•75% strongly agreed that the conference was interesting and/or informative regardless of whether or not it was directly related to their work

•82% felt the program incorporated technology concepts and demonstrations effectively

•46% recently started participating in NERALLT

•89% plan to attend NERALLT in the future

Spring 2008 NERALLT Business Meeting Minutes

Date: May 2, 2008

Time: 1:15-2:10 p.m.

Location: Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Agenda

1. Announcement of joint meeting with NEALLT in fall 2009

Discussion:  After consulting with the President of NEALLT, Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl, it was decided that the joint meeting of NEALLT and NERALLT will be in the fall of 2009 at Yale University.

Decision:  The NEALLT membership voted in favor of this meeting in the fall of 2009. The exact dates of the conference have yet to be decided.

2. Planning for the Spring 2009 meeting of NERALLT

Discussion:  Because the Spring 2009 meeting falls just before the IALLT conference, there has been some discussion among the board to hold a streamlined NERALLT meeting that would be held virtually. This virtual meeting would be online and have one main site and several satellites with ten or fifteen people at each site. The proposed idea is similar to how Jabber was able to bring multiple participants

together with audio and video. Dartmouth College has volunteered to allow for NERALLT to use their Jabber server for this virtual meeting. It was pointed out that having a person-to-person meeting is meaningful for the purposes of networking. To accommodate NERALLT members who would like to have this face-to-face meeting, there would be one main site available so that this networking could take place. The theme and the main host for this conference have not been decided. Dartmouth College was proposed as the main site because Dartmouth has the Jabber server onsite. This meeting is probably only going to be a half day meeting. The theme would not have to necessarily focus solely on the technology. We would be using the technology as a vehicle for discussing a completely different topic. It was requested by the membership to have the meeting begin at 10:00 or 11:00.

Audrey Sartiaux at Union College in Schenectady, New York offered her institution as one of the satellite locations. The location would be good should some NEALLT members wish to join the proceedings. Debra Mandel at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts also offered her institution for use as one of the satellite sites. Dan Soneson from Southern Connecticut State University offered his institution as a satellite site serving Connecticut.

Conference themes for the virtual conference were then discussed. Members of the audience voiced an interest in a discussion on assessment. There was some confusion as to what area of assessment would be the focus. Would the conference focus on student assessment, teacher assessment or oral proficiency assessment? One topic proposed by the audience was, “How is technology improving what we used to do on paper?” Another topic was how to use surveys to assess the effectiveness of your lab. In response to this topic, Mary Morrisard-Larkin of the College of the Holy Cross said that there is an expert on survey writing who could be asked to speak at this virtual conference. The audience emphasized that it was important to specify what kind of assessment would be discussed during the virtual meeting. Another person

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to keep in mind when talking about assessment is John Norris from the University of Hawaii. He is one of the leading experts on program assessment.

Resolved:  The NERALLT board did not vote on whether to have the virtual meeting in spring 2009. The program committee has not been selected for this conference. Potential satellite institutions (Southern Connecticut State University, Northeastern University and Union College) were proposed, but no firm decision has been made. We will approach Dartmouth College to host the virtual meeting. The program theme focus is assessment, but the type of assessment needs to be clearly defined.

3. Planning for the fall 2008 NERALLT meeting

Discussion:  Discussion centered on the process of finding a host and a program committee. In the past some institutions have experienced difficulty finding money in their budgets to fund a NERALLT meeting. In the case of Wesleyan University, a lot of the funds for the conference came from the department budget. This issue of funding has come up in the case of Landmark College in Putney, Vermont. They would like to host the NERALLT conference, but lack of funds prevent them from doing so. Landmark College would need between $400-600 to fund such an event. Wintergreen Magnet School of Meriden, CT offered its institution as a potential host for the 2008 NERALLT conference. The only thing that the institution would ask in return is to have some slots open for Wintergreen faculty to come and participate in the conference. Mary Morrisard-Larkin from the College of the Holly Cross stated that her institution does not charge for the use of space if faculty are allowed free admission to the event. Ruth Trometer volunteered to have MIT and BU host a joint conference in the fall of 2008. Having two host institutions would open up the possibility to hold workshops in one location and presentations in another. A concern with regards to BU as a host is that BU has not verbally committed to the event. It may be better to decide between MIT and UMASS Boston as potential sites. A moment was taken during the meeting to ask

the question of what technology was available at UMASS Boston, BU and MIT in order to spark a conversation about the theme. UMASS Boston was also seen as a better site then BU and MIT due to the abundance of parking at UMASS.

Resolved:  UMASS Boston will host the fall 2008 NERALLT conference. Mary Simone of UMASS Boston will have to go back to her department to get final confirmation for this event. In the event approval for the conference at UMASS is not given, then MIT will be the alternative site.

4. More networking time during meetings

Discussion:  The difficulty in getting the NERALLT membership to come back into the room for the business meeting is a good example of not having enough networking time during meetings. There are so many presentations back to back that there is no free time to just talk and get to know one another. There is time on Thursday during the dinner to do this kind of networking, but not everybody attends the dinner and those who can't lose out on this networking opportunity. Allowing a half an hour in the morning and one in the afternoon could provide more networking time. This would result in fewer presentations, but this might be necessary. Two fifty minute sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon would be all that could be scheduled if networking time were built into the conference. Another option would be a longer breakfast so that attendees could have network time. More time between presentations may offer more networking time as well.

Resolved:  A request was made by Program Coordinator, Audrey Sartiaux, for NEALLT participants to fill out the evaluation form and write down their comments concerning the issue of more networking time. No formal decision was made on how to improve the situation.

5. What are your learning spaces like?

Wintergreen Magnet School Meriden, CT: Wintergreen is a technology school that has one computer

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lab as well as a computer lab that is part of the library. There would be many opportunities for NERALLT participants to see children using the technology. Wintergreen gives a very good picture of what the K-12 situation is in terms of technology. Having Wintergreen as the host for a fall session would be awkward because the K-12 school schedule does not line up well with the higher ed schedule. Having a Friday and Saturday NERALLT may help resolve this issue of different schedules. Technology integration is focus of the Wintergreen school.

Landmark College Putney, VT: It is a two year college. The students in this school must have a diagnosed learning disability. The students have average to above average cognitive ability and usually graduate from the institution and enter the professional world. There are also many assistive technologies on campus that make it truly unique in its mission. This institution should be kept in mind for the spring of 2010 NERALLT meeting.

It would be a good idea to keep with the current NERALLT pattern which is Boston in the spring and somewhere else in the fall.

Resolved:   Wintergreen may not be a good site for the fall 2008 meeting, but should be kept in mind for a future NERALLT meeting. Once funding issues are resolved at Landmark College, this could be another site for a future conference.

6. Theme for the fall 2008 conference

Discussion:  One of the themes proposed by the NERALLT board was “Learning Spaces”, in particular, how the choices of technology and room configuration can have an effect on language learning. There was also some interest in discussing flexible learning spaces. The theme of learning spaces would also include virtual learning spaces. IALLT is thinking of redoing their language learning center manual so this topic might be coming up at the right time.

Resolved:  The topic of learning spaces was chosen as the theme for the fall 2008 NERALLT conference.

7. Fall 2008 NERALLT program committee

Discussion:  Program Chair, Audrey Sartiaux, is in the process of writing a NERALLT conference organizer's handbook. She is also offering her help to any future program committee members when it comes to organizing a NERALLT conference. The size of the fall 2008 committee will be two to three people. Four people was said to be too many.

Resolved:   Fall Committee members will be

Mary Simone        UMASS Boston     Host

Ruth Trometer       MIT                   Chair

Mary                   College of the      Member
Morrisard-Larkin     Holy Cross

Marisa Castagno     Connecticut College     Member

Michael Nieckoski     Landmark College     Member

8. Publish Proceedings

Discussion:  The NERALLT board viewed idea of publishing proceedings as not useful if they are not peer reviewed. The other option would be to make the powerpoints, and .mp3 files of the presentations available on the new NERALLT website. This would not be the same as peer-reviewed published work, but it would help promote presenters' work within our community.

9. Why be a NERALLT member?

Discussion:  If a wiki, a forum and a blog are made a part of a password-protected portion of the NERALLT website, this would give incentive to other people in the language learning and technology field to become members of NERALLT. It would also make the NERALLT membership feel as if they are getting something that only membership can give them. If a NERALLT member could not come to a NERALLT meeting, s/he would still have access to conference content.

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The networking and information acquired at a NERALLT conference was seen as ammunition for people who need to defend their spaces and start new initiatives. The other benefit of being a NERALLT member is that it is reasonably priced.

Respectfully submitted by John Graves, Secretary

SPRING CONFERENCE ATTENDEE LIST

Mary Beth Barth       Hamilton College

Jeremy Bennett        Yale University

Iris Bork-Goldfield     Fairfield University

Tracy Marie Bucci      Brooklyn Friends School

Sergei Bunaev          Wesleyan University

Marisa Castagno        Connecticut College

Jennifer Cirino           Fairfield University

Janie Duncan            Landmark College

Cindy Evans              Skidmore College

Otmar Foelsche          Dartmouth College

Bradley Gano             Yale University

Thomas Garbelotti      Dartmouth College

Nina Garrett              Yale University (retired)

Joel Goldfield              Fairfield University

Shiri Goren                Yale University

John Graves               Yale University

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. . . continued . . .

An Interview with John Graves

This is our second in a series of interviews with selected colleagues that focus on our roles within the language education community. We hope these interviews will provide insight into our profession as we look at our varied experiences within and across institutions.

If you are interested in sharing your experiences for our next newsletter, we'd love to hear from you. You can contact me at: barbara.lindsey@uconn.edu

We continue our series with an interview with John Graves, who recently accepted a new position as Foreign Language Resource Specialist at the Yale Center for Language Study. Prior to this,

John served as Manager for the Language Learning Resource Center at St. Michael’Äôs College in Vermont and hosted our fall 2008 conference.

Could you share with us a little bit about yourself and your background?

I taught English in Zushi, Japan for six years at the elementary and middle school level. During that time I was one of three non-Japanese teachers in the city. In order to participate in activities at work and around town, I started to study Japanese. By the end of my journey I had reached an upper-intermediate level in Japanese. What lured me back to the States was the opportunity to attend the Middlebury intensive Japanese program. That was the first time I used PowerPoint to do a final presentation for a class. I found myself pulled into a situation where I was helping all the students in my class complete their PowerPoint projects. I had no idea that providing that type of assistance would become a part of my future career. After Middlebury, I went to Saint Michael's College to start the MA program in Teaching English as a Second Language. My intention was to get the degree and go back to Japan. Instead, I started working part-time at media services maintaining classroom technology and doing one on one trainings with faculty on how to use technology in the classroom. Once I finished my degree, I was approached by Susan Breeyear, Assistant Director of ITS at Saint Michael's College, about taking a position in the LLRC as the manager. As I look back now, it seems like a logical series of events, but I had no idea where the language learning road would take me. What a ride!

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You recently accepted a new position at Yale - congratulations! According to the U.S. Department of Labor, today's learners will hold 10-14 jobs by the time they are 38 years old. Do you think this statistic holds true for today's 'language technologists' as well and if so, how do you think we should best prepare for this changing landscape?

Thank you for your kind words. I am grateful that a new opportunity and a new challenge have come my way in the form of this position at Yale University.

Hmmm . . . I have changed jobs five times since my first job working at a concession stand at a minor league baseball stadium so I am nowhere near ten. I am the kind of person who likes to settle into a position, build solid relationships with faculty, staff and students and learn all of the angles of the workplace. I think in general that the statistic is true. I hear of a lot of people within NERALLT circles who jump from institution to institution. I think that this is one way of keeping your mind fresh and keep the challenges coming.

How do you prepare for this changing landscape? Find creative ways of training yourself and listen to faculty and staff and learn from their experiences. When I find a new technology that I find interesting and I want to train myself on it, I think of a past lesson plan that I did as an EFL teacher in Japan and try to repackage it using the new technology. If the technology enhances the lesson in an effective way, I will go to step two and run the idea by faculty, workstudies and staff. If the response to the new idea is positive, I will take it to the final step and start piloting the approach with faculty that are considered early adopters. My ultimate goal would be to have the early adopter feel comfortable with the technology to the point where they could teach their colleagues.

Did you do anything proactive in terms of education or training to qualify for the position you currently hold?

I really owe a lot to my previous supervisor, Susan Breeyear, for getting me involved in the NERALLT organization early on in my career as an LLRC manager. My involvement in NERALLT led to Saint Michael's College hosting the fall 2007 meeting. A representative from Yale University, Maria Montzolis, was at the meeting. She had the opportunity to see my workspace and talk to me about what I was doing with technology as it pertains to language learning. When the position was posted for a Foreign Language Resource Specialist at the CLS, she encouraged me to apply for the position. I wasn't so proactive, but my participation in NERALLT has given me the opportunity to have conversations with my colleagues and see informative presentations. I remember going to my first NERALLT meeting and thinking to myself ...“Hmm...I am in a room with multitalented, multi-cultural, multi-taskers... I think I will have a lot in common with these people.” It turns out that I was right.

What current or emerging technologies do you see as having the greatest impact on the programs we support and in what ways?

I think that as the laptop gets lighter and more energy efficient you are going to see more laptops in the foreign language classroom. It still surprises me that even though the laptop and all its capabilities are out there, that you still don't find it on every student's desk in the classroom. But this may be right around the corner. The price of flash memory is going down everyday and this is helping machines get lighter and run more efficiently. The CD-ROM is going to be left at your desk and not connected to your laptop. Network storage is going to be more prevalent than local storage. Processors and monitors are going to use less power which is going to help primitive battery technology power a machine for 14 hours as opposed to just four or five. Wireless technology is going to continue improving its performance. You can

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look to cell phone technology for indications of that. These innovations will all lead to getting students bringing their laptops to class without complaining about how heavy it is and how the battery runs out of power in four hours. Once this laptop becomes widely available, you can begin to truly push more effective uses of internet based items such as course management systems, collaborative note-taking (DyKnow, MS OneNote) and audio and video. The downside to every student having laptops in the classroom is that managers of language centers are going to have to look to making flexible spaces that have no desktops, and wireless. Students will have all their own equipment. In the language classroom, there will also be a need in the future to find ways of making sure that learners stay on task. Classroom management in the form of application and website blocking for the class is going to become essential to accomplish this goal.

And finally, what advice would you give someone who is interested in pursuing a career in technology-enhanced language instruction?

Be open to reinventing yourself. I went from being a language teacher to a media support specialist to LLRC manager to LLRC Manager/Instructional Technologist and finally a Foreign Language Resource Specialist. Once you say to yourself, “This is what I am!,” you run the risk of being left behind. Don't be left behind.

It is with great sadness that we share news of the passing of Maria Montzolis, who died Friday, June 6, 2008. Maria was an Assistant Director at the Yale Center for Language Study, heading up the Technology and Project Development group. She was 34.

Maria graduated with a degree in French and Anthropology in 1995 from Connecticut College, where she showed herself to be not only a brilliant language learner (trilingual in Greek, Spanish, and English), but also a dedicated and expert assistant in the Language Resource Center -- so valuable and capable that when the LRC director stepped down in 1996,