Concordia Language Villages 2017-2018 Annual Report

CONCORDIA LANGUAGE VILLAGES | MAY 1, 2017–APRIL 30, 2018

Inspiring Courageous Global Citizens since 1961.

NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Hugh and Linda Mullenbach

Michael and Lorie Afremov

New Orleans, La.

Wayzata, Minn.

David and Audrey Olsen

Sarah and Scott Bjelde

Lake Elmo, Minn.

Eden Prairie, Minn.

Jon and Sophie Pederson

Greg Cash

Spicer, Minn.

Minnetonka, Minn.

Steven Pollei and Solveig Storvick Pollei

John Clemedtson

Tacoma, Wash.

Moorhead, Minn.

Benjamin Squire

Georg and Reidun Gauger

Topanga, Calif.

Mound, Minn.

John (Jack) Tunheim

Clinton Gilliland and Mary Turner Gilliland

Minneapolis, Minn.

Menlo Park, Calif.

Alfred Harrison and Ingrid Lenz Harrison

LEADERSHIP GROUP

Wayzata, Minn.

Mark Chen

Keith Johanneson

Group Director

Bemidji, Minn.

Nicole Ellis

Ilya Katsnelson

Associate Director of Marketing

Copenhagen, Denmark

Martin Graefe

Ross King

Senior Group Director

Vancouver, B.C.

David Manning

Kent Knutson

Associate Director of Finance

Washington, D.C.

Melissa O. Rademacher

Margaret Cuomo Maier

Associate Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations

Manhasset, N.Y.

Christine Schulze

Vivian Mason

Executive Director

Minneapolis, Minn.

Warren Schulze

Dan and Cynthia Mjolsness

Director of Operations

Barrington Hills, Ill.

Jennifer Speir Group Director

FROM CONCORDIA LANGUAGE VILLAGES

GREETINGS

COVER ARTWORK: DAVID HETLAND MOSAIC AT EL LAGO DEL BOSQUE, THE SPANISH LANGUAGE VILLAGE

This past year our mission evolved to inspiring courageous global citizens.

We engaged with many of you—our villagers, our staff, parents, educators and supporters—to take a hard look at our mission as an organization.

We did so not because our previous mission—preparing young people for responsible citizenship in our global community—wasn’t compelling, but because we felt an urgency to review our relevance in a world that is changing rapidly.

Our community has also changed since 30 years ago, when our mission statement was first written. Our youth programs span a wider range of content-rich activities and adventures. Adults are joining our language immersion sessions throughout the year, for both professional development and personal enrichment. Parents and children can experience our residential immersion programs together in family sessions. Our adventure day camps and language discovery programs present the world to pre-school and younger participants.

As we listened to your stories of language learning, we found determination, grit and wonder. But most of all, we found courage. Courage to step out of your comfort zone. Courage to keep going. To keep improving. To look up, reach out and embrace the world.

The French Nobel Laureate André Gide said that you cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. It takes courage to let go, to swim into the unknown, to grab hold of something new and then return to shore with a greater understanding of what lies beyond our immediate horizon.

Language is our middle name, but life in the Villages is about more than language. It is about that very personal moment when each of us musters our courage to explore the many surprising, challenging and rewarding ways of our world. It’s a lifelong journey towards understanding our role in the common home we share with all walks of life and all cultures.

Courage to learn something new is the foundation of all teaching and learning at Concordia Language Villages. Thank you for your support of our mission and our program!

Christine Schulze Executive Director | Concordia Language Villages

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Summer youth enrollment continued on an increasing trend, with 4,570 villagers from all 50 states and 30 countries in attendance.

The Concordia Language Training Center, a Department of Defense initiative, continued to thrive in its second year with the number of training weeks and revenue tripling since 2016. Additionally, Persian-Farsi was added to accompany Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Through a year-long process to re-examine its educational relevancy in today’s rapidly changing world, the mission of Concordia Language Villages was changed to Inspiring Courageous Global Citizens.

The weekly WorldView Blog was launched as a thought leadership space and hosted authors from within Concordia Language Villages, along with professionals around the world.

In partnership with the Singita Grumeti Fund, Concordia Language Villages developed immersion camps aimed at enhancing English skills among primary school children in communities that border the Grumeti Reserve in the Western Serengeti in Tanzania.

Professional development webinars provided learning opportunities for staff around the world. Topics included “Leading Effective Simulations,” “International Staff Recruitment” and more.

Three family cabins were built at Waldsee, the German Language Village, to accommodate the growing interest in family language learning.

ENROLLMENT | 10,453

2017–2018 TOTAL ENROLLMENT

SUMMER YOUTH | 4,690 & FAMILIES

U.S. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Top Ten States 1. MINNESOTA

6. TEX AS

2. ILLINOIS

7. NEW YORK

3. C ALIFORNIA

8. COLOR ADO

4. WISCONSIN

9. IOWA

5. VIRGINIA

10. NORTH DAKOTA

JAPANESE 308

.

SPANISH 1,144

263

CHINESE 389

182 151

147 128 110 82

GERMAN

81 55

54

776

FRENCH

3,437 TOTAL ENROLLMENT

OTHER LANGUAGES

SWEDISH

RUSSIAN

PORTUGUESE

NORWEGIAN

KOREAN

ITALIAN

FINNISH

ENGLISH

TOP FIVE LANGUAGES

DANISH

ARABIC

820

ACADEMIC YEAR | 5,763

ACADEMIC YEAR PROGRAM ENROLLMENT TOTALS

& OTHER SUMMER PROGRAMS

*Language Discovery includes Twin Cities Day Camps, Pre-K, and After School programs.

Concordia Language Villages has become a leader in providing a variety of programming for adults, families, school groups, educators, critical languages and the youngest of language learners.

GERMAN 699

LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTER

91

EDUCATORS

79

LANGUAGE DISCOVERY*

2,066

SPANISH

NORWEGIAN

3,697

206

FRENCH 751

CHINESE 174

TOP FIVE LANGUAGES 5,527 TOTAL ENROLLMENT

74

ADULTS 35

37

30

29

OTHER LANGUAGES

SWEDISH

RUSSIAN

5 PORTUGUESE

NORDIC

KOREAN

JAPANESE

FINNISH

5 PERSIANFARSI

16 5 ARABIC

338

VILLAGE WEEKENDS FAMILIES

2,715 474

GIFT INCOME

FINANCIAL SUMMARY SOURCE OF GIFTS Business Support $94,569 Foundation Support $319,234 Organizational Support $2,421 Foreign Entities $224,100 State of Minnesota/Federal $665,220 Individuals $523,026 TOTAL $1,848,569

ALLOCATION OF GIFTS Current Operations/Village Vision (Village Restricted Other) $871,401 Leadership Funds (Village Unrestricted) $22,371 Endowment Funds (Village Endowment) $25,690 Plant Funds (Village Capital) $419,488 Scholarship (Village Restricted Budget Relvg) $509,619 TOTAL $1,848,569

OPERATING FUND

REVENUE Tuition and Fees $10,171,552 Charter School $453,535 Retail $296,446 Transportation $484,852 Gifts, Grants and Endowment $28,588 TOTAL $11,434,973

EXPENSES Salaries $5,183,569 Fringe $1,142,679 Services $2,605,748 Supplies $517,104 Cost of Sales $1,008,928 Equipment $64,916 Utilities $420,127 Maintenance $91,902 TOTAL $11,034,974 Balance of Revenue Over Expenses $400,000 DISPOSITION OF NET REVENUE Unallocated Revenue (to College) for Capital Debt/Maintenance N/A Unallocated College Services $400,000

2

2017–2018

STAFF PROFILE

732 7

North America

Canada 2 Mexico 7 United States

732

South America

Argentina 15 Brazil 2

6

Colombia 6 Peru 1

Europe

Austria 1 Denmark 4 Estonia 1 Finland 7 France 4

Africa

1

Egypt 2 Senegal 4

Asia

China 29

Germany 10

Independent Republic

Italy 5

of Georgia

Norway 3

Japan 12

Spain 6

Kazakhstan 1

Sweden 6

Qatar 1

Ukraine 1

Russia 7

United Kingdom

Republic of Korea

2

2

Cameroon 1

1

11

15

7 3

6

7

1

2

10 4

1

1

1 1

5

6

11

2

29

1

4

1

The staff who work in Language Village programs are drawn to the mission of the Villages and the opportunity to share their language and cultural expertise to villagers of all ages. Staff typically participate in a weeklong orientation where they develop the skills and techniques critical to helping villagers learn in a safe and fun environment.

884 Total Staff 152 International Staff 29 Countries

5 Continents

12

LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTER Concordia College is one of nine Language Training Centers (LTC) across the country funded by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office and administered by the Institute of International Education. This LTC was established in 2016 in collaboration with the Army National Guard; additional partners have been added since then.

Concordia’s LTC, through its Concordia Language Villages, offers twoweek and four-week residential iso-immersion sessions for six to ten linguists at a time in the following critical languages: Arabic, Chinese/ Mandarin, French, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and, new in 2017–18, Persian-Farsi.

Concordia Language Villages has provided customized training for Department of Defense personnel of the US Army since 2006 and has yielded remarkable success in language acquisition as well as building cultural competencies. In its second year (2017–18), the LTC nearly tripled its number of learning weeks (9 to 24), over doubled its number of linguist students (41 to 91), and tripled its grant funding ($250,000 to $760,000).

“Over the past 15 years, the U.S. military has increasingly recognized the value of world language and cultural competency skills and is investing significantly in training programs to provide additional tools to soldiers who interface with individuals abroad,” says Martin Graefe, senior group director for Concordia Language Villages. “It is truly rewarding that the demonstrated success of our immersion programming is valued by the U.S. government and that our teaching methods are regarded as effective preparation for the demanding work of its personnel.”

At Concordia Language Villages, the approach to language teaching puts learners into a grand simulation which includes the need to apply the target language via context-based situated learning and being surrounded by meaningful elements of a culturally-authentic setting. The instructor to learner ratio is 1:3, providing for non-stop opportunities to engage and find support in the learning process. The iso-immersion courses address training needs in eight languages, and are designed to support basic language acquisition or language proficiency maintenance/ advancement along with development of cultural competencies. A twoweek session, 11 full days of instruction, encompasses 110 documented hours of language training.

Eight other institutions host LTCs, including California State University Long Beach, George Mason University, George Washington University, North Carolina State University, San Diego State University, University of Kansas, University of Montana and University of Utah. For more information about the program, visit dodltc.org.

FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT SWEDISH COUNCIL OF AMERICA (SCA)

Since 1982, Concordia Language Villages’ Swedish program has been enhanced by an ongoing series of grants from Swedish Council of America (SCA). SCA represents Swedish heritage organizations in North America, promoting Swedish culture and strengthening ties between the United States and Sweden. Sjölunden is proud to partner with SCA in pursuit of these goals.

SCA was founded in 1972 to unite and support hundreds of SwedishAmerican lodges, clubs, associations, museums and other groups across the country. It provides resources for the Swedish-American community to preserve and promote Swedish culture, including Sweden & America magazine and two major annual scholarships for student exchanges between Sweden and the United States. To date, the SCA Heritage Fund has granted over one million dollars to the Swedish-American community, supporting 400 projects organized by 184 organizations in 35 states and provinces.

SCA grants have allowed Sjölunden to expand and enrich its programming for generations of villagers including such projects as cataloguing library materials, sponsoring artists in residence and building new curriculum units for the Swedish high school credit program. These projects have kept villagers coming back year after year, knowing that every summer will bring a new angle from which to study Swedish language and culture.

Emily Kajsa Pyenson, dean of Sjölunden, knows the value of SCA’s support to the Village’s curriculum. “SCA encourages us to innovate across our programing at Sjölunden. In recent years, artists in residence enhance villagers’ learning and demonstrate excellent teaching practices to our program staff, building our teaching capacity over the long term.”

Sjölunden’s artist in residence for 2018 was Swedish Public Television journalist Camilla Gustaffson, who shared her expertise in media studies with the support of an SCA grant. Under her guidance, villagers analyzed Swedish news media, then created a 15-minute television news broadcast for which they created stories, decided how much air time each story merited, wrote brief and effective lead-ins and then presented a live broadcast in jackets and ties. Camilla observed, “My goal was to broaden the understanding of what non-commercial media is, and how it compares with the media that dominates the United States. I think our media discussions have made them ask questions like, ‘Who’s telling me this story?’, ‘What signals are someone including in this?’, and ‘Who is the messenger behind it?’”

Gregg White currently serves as the Executive Director of SCA. He observes, “[In our archives,] I found the first grant application from the Villages to SCA, dated December 6, 1981. It resulted in a $2,000 grant for Sjölunden that was followed by 14 more grants over the succeeding decades. I have had the pleasure of visiting the camp in order to personally meet with the various artists in residence. We see teaching young people both the language and culture of Sweden as integral to our mission and are proud to be a part of the CLV family. We look forward to many more years of cooperation and support.”

In 1960, Gerhard Haukebo, a Concordia College faculty member, suggested the College initiate an experimental program using immersion techniques to teach language. The intent of the program was to teach young people about other languages and cultures, while giving Concordia students the opportunity to gain practical teaching experience.

Concordia College sponsored the project in the summer of 1961. The College rented Luther Crest Camp, north of Alexandria, Minn., for the first two-week German session for 72 campers aged 9–12. By all accounts, it was a resounding success.

Interest in the program increased steadily and more “Villages” were added. Today 10,500 participants enroll in immersion programs in 15 languages. Seven architecturally authentic sites on Turtle River Lake (near Bemidji, Minn.) support year-round programming for thousands of youth, adults and teachers every year.

A program of

901 8th St S Moorhead, MN. 56562 (800) 222–4750; clv@cord.edu ConcordiaLanguageVillages.org © 2019 Concordia Language Villages, Moorhead, Minnesota

2917/600/0219