Concordia Language Villages 2019-2020 Annual Report

CONCORDIA LANGUAGE VILLAGES | MAY 1, 2019–APRIL 30, 2020

INSPIRING COURAGEOUS GLOBAL CITIZENS SINCE 1961

NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

David Oprava

Michael and Lorie Afremov

Cardiff, South Glamorgan, UK

Wayzata, Minn.

Sophie Pederson

Sarah and Scott Bjelde

Spicer, Minn.

Eden Prairie, Minn.

Steven Pollei and Solveig Storvick Pollei

Greg Cash

Tacoma, Wash.

Minnetonka, Minn.

Benjamin Squire

John Clemedtson

Topanga, Calif.

Moorhead, Minn.

John (Jack) Tunheim

Georg and Reidun Gauger

Minneapolis, Minn.

Mound, Minn.

Robert Waldron and Leona Werner

Clinton Gilliland and Mary Turner Gilliland

Edina, Minn.

Menlo Park, Calif.

Alfred Harrison and Ingrid Lenz Harrison

LEADERSHIP GROUP

Wayzata, Minn.

Alexander Arguelles

Keith Johanneson

Group Director

Bemidji, Minn.

Mark Chen

Ilya Katsnelson

Group Director

Copenhagen, Denmark

Nicole Ellis

Ross King

Associate Director of Marketing

Vancouver, B.C.

Martin Graefe

Kent Knutson

Senior Group Director and Director of Concordia Language Training Center

Washington, D.C.

Margaret Cuomo Maier Manhasset, N.Y.

Vivian Mason Minneapolis, Minn.

Dan and Cynthia Mjolsness Barrington Hills, Ill.

Hugh and Linda Mullenbach New Orleans, La.

David and Audrey Olsen Lake Elmo, Minn.

Kathy Jenson Director of Finance and Administrative Services

Christine Schulze Executive Director

Warren Schulze Director of Operations

Jennifer Speir Group Director

FROM CONCORDIA LANGUAGE VILLAGES

GREETINGS

It has been a true privilege to serve Concordia Language Villages as its executive director for the last 30 years. The boundless creativity of our staff and the limitless enthusiasm of our villagers have been evident every day as they “lived the language” in culturally rich Village settings. Families across the country and around the world continually conveyed their passion for language and cultural immersion, and readily shared their stories to spread word of the program. Language educators at all levels have been strong partners in communicating the importance of language proficiency as a 21st century skill. It takes a Village to inspire courageous global citizens!

I now look forward to welcoming our new executive director, Mary Maus Kosir, and to embarking on my next role as the director of development for Concordia Language Villages. Over the years, I’ve been humbled by the tremendous generosity of our parents, alumni, foundations and friends who supported need-based scholarships, advanced program quality and helped build the Villages on Turtle River Lake near Bemidji, Minnesota. Your gifts matter greatly, and provide a strong foundation for us to realize our goals.

This past year has been one of great challenge, both at the Villages and in our global community. The COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing our ways of learning, working and living. In that spirit, we are expanding our definition of immersion…bringing it online in Virtual Villages, while still planning for residential sessions to continue safely and securely. We are finding that we can reach new audiences, collaborate effectively with school and organizational partners, and offer more options for being immersed in a language on a year-round basis. Our staff are ready to embrace these new opportunities.

Thank you for your commitment to our mission of courageous global citizenship!

Christine Schulze Executive Director | Concordia Language Villages

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Every moment is an opportunity to learn at the Villages, especially when sitting down for a family-style meal. The talented members of our Culinary Arts department ensure that not only is the food delicious, but it is also culturally authentic from its ingredients to its preparation.

The Concordia Language Training Center received a three-year renewal grant of $1.2 million each year from the Defense Language and National Security Education Office of the U.S. Department of Defense. Expanded language training sessions included the addition of Hebrew to the other languages offered: Arabic (Levantine, MSA, Egyptian), Chinese/Mandarin, French, Hebrew, Korean, Persian/Farsi, Pashto, Russian and Spanish.

Spring 2020 launched our first-ever “Virtual Villages” online learning experiences with real language, real culture and real people. Youth and adults from around the world logged on for virtual museum tours, singing and dancing, and even special celebrity guests!

Concordia Language Villages continues to reach out to 60 years’ worth of alumni. Spread out all across the United States and around the world, we have enhanced efforts to reconnect and to “Renew Your Passport” with those who have passed through our Village gates.

The culturally authentic site for Sup Sogui Hosu, the Korean Language Village, begins to take shape on Turtle River Lake, due to the generous donation from Kenny and Simone Park and Simone Corporation (Seoul). The dining hall and administrative center are currently under construction.

Much of the “magic” of the Villages occurs because of the international staff who join us through the U.S. Department of State J-1 Exchange Visa program. The villager experience is magnified by learning language and culture with native speakers from around the world.

ENROLLMENT | 9,206

2019–2020 TOTAL ENROLLMENT FROM ALL 50 STATES AND 39 COUNTRIES

SUMMER YOUTH | 4,944 & FAMILIES

U.S. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Top Ten States

.

1. MINNESOTA

6. COLOR ADO

2. C ALIFORNIA

7. NEW YORK

3. WISCONSIN

8. IOWA

4. ILLINOIS

9. VIRGINIA

5. TEX AS

10. MASSACHUSET TS

ENGLISH* 360

284

CHINESE

266

391

165

145

136

120 75

87 52

36

TOP FIVE LANGUAGES 3,578 TOTAL ENROLLMENT *English includes 360 youth taught in Tanzania

NORWEGIAN

KOREAN

JAPANESE

ITALIAN

FINNISH

831

DANISH

FRENCH

ARABIC

729

PORTUGUESE

GERMAN

OTHER LANGUAGES 1,366 TOTAL ENROLLMENT

SWEDISH

1,267

RUSSIAN

SPANISH

ACADEMIC YEAR | 4,262 & 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.

ARABIC NORWEGIAN 98

ACADEMIC YEAR PROGRAM ENROLLMENT TOTALS

130

GERMAN

LANGUAGE TRAINING CENTER

154

EDUCATORS

101

LANGUAGE DISCOVERY*

1,760

311

FRENCH 321

SPANISH 3,028

TOP FIVE LANGUAGES 3,885 TOTAL ENROLLMENT

95

36

VILLAGE WEEKENDS

SWEDISH

PERSIANFARSI

8 JAPANESE

HEBREW

FINNISH

ENGLISH**

CHINESE

8

306

27 24

NORDIC

30

KOREAN

35

ADULTS

RUSSIAN

60 51

1,584

OTHER LANGUAGES 377 TOTAL ENROLLMENT **English includes 35 teachers taught in Tanzania

FAMILIES

357

OPERATING FUND

FINANCIAL SUMMARY REVENUE Tuition and Fees $10,908,384 Charter School $149,660 Retail $266,676 Transportation $501,002 Gifts, Grants and Endowment $71,268 TOTAL $11,896,990

EXPENSES Salaries $5,684,052 Fringe $1,581,365 Services $2,541,234 Supplies $516,599 Cost of Sales $1,040,319 Equipment $48,445 Utilities $426,338 Maintenance N/A TOTAL $11,838,352 Balance of Revenue Over Expenses $58,638 DISPOSITION OF NET REVENUE The disposition of net revenue includes distribution to College for unallocated expenses and transfers to restricted funds for maintenance and capital debt.

GIFT INCOME

SOURCE OF GIFTS Business Support $70,430 Foundation Support $551,321 Organizational Support $114,179 Foreign Entities $161,735 State of Minnesota/Federal $489,310 Individuals $346,802 TOTAL $1,733,777

ALLOCATION OF GIFTS Current Operations/Village Vision (Village Restricted Other) $909,266 Leadership Funds (Village Unrestricted) $64,627 Endowment Funds (Village Endowment) $15,281 Plant Funds (Village Capital) $185,205 Scholarship (Village Restricted Budget Relvg) $559,398 TOTAL $1,733,777

5

2019–2020

STAFF PROFILE

945

North America

Canada 5 Costa Rica

1

Haiti 2 Mexico 15 United States

945

South America

15

Africa

Burkina Faso

Cameroon 3 Cote d’Ivoire

1

Argentina 32

Egypt 2

Brazil 2

Ethiopia 1

Colombia 3

Morocco 1

Europe

Senegal 6

Denmark 2

China 24

Austria 1

Israel 1

France 3

Japan 3

Germany 14

Kazakhstan 1

Italy 6

Nepal 2

Latvia 1

Russia 11

Montenegro 1

Republic of Korea

Netherlands 2

Taiwan 1

Norway 7

Uzbekistan 1

Romania 1

Vietam 2

Sweden 9 United Kingdom

1

1

3

Asia

Finland 7

Spain 3

2

1

Oceania

New Zealand

2

7

32 1

7 7

9

11

1 1

2 1 2

3

14

1 1

6

3

1

1

1

7 1

1

2

24

2

1

6 2

1 1 1

3

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.

1,132 Total Staff 187 International Staff 39 Countries

6 Continental Areas

3

Celebrating Fifty Years of High School Credit 1970. This was the year that the first episode of All My Children aired on broadcast television. The world celebrated Earth Day for the first time in April, with the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency to come later that year. In May, the Beatles released their last album, “Let it Be,” and in June, the first high school credit sessions at Concordia Language Villages came into being, with then Executive Director Vern Mauritsen at the helm.

That year, German Dean Hede Oplesch, French Dean Odell Bjerkness, and Spanish Dean Allan Hibbard, along with a small but adventurous group of credit villagers, were the first to pioneer an accredited high school language program that has become a valued mainstay of the Language Villages today. Executive Director Christine Schulze was among those in the first cohort at El Lago del Bosque Spanish Language Village, with thousands of credit villagers, as they are called, following suit in the 50 years since.

Credit villagers receive a full year’s worth of high school language credit after 180 hours of intensive engagement with one of the 14 languages offered at the Language Villages. The program is accredited by Cognia, a non-profit organization that accredits primary and secondary schools throughout the United States and internationally. In 2019, approximately 620 students participated from across the United States in the credit program, working with staff from 40 different countries.

Other experientially rich opportunities for earning high school credit have emerged over the years, building on the successful residential immersion model launched in 1970. Staff found creative ways to deepen and build on special interests of high school students, from doing a Grand Voyage by canoe in French with Les Voyageurs to being immersed in medieval theatre, environment, and STEM topics at Waldsee. Instituting selfreflection practices and portfolio assessment encouraged credit villagers to take command of their own language learning experiences, at the Language Villages and beyond.

Students also traveled abroad with Concordia Language Villages to earn a full year of credit, with programs in Argentina, China, France, Germany, Japan and Spain taking place in the 1990s and early 2000s until the economic crisis of 2008.

In 2016 a new partnership with Xperitas, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting global citizenship through authentic language and cultural immersion experiences, emerged, with options for learners of French, German, and Spanish. Credit Abroad villagers spend two weeks at either Lac du Bois, Waldsee, or El Lago del Bosque, followed by two weeks in France, Germany and Switzerland, or Costa Rica. Group Director Jennifer Charlotte Speir-Hearn reflects, “One of the best features of Credit Abroad is that villagers are not meeting for the first time in the airport, but building community pretty strongly here at the Villages. It’s an intensive environment linguistically – great preparation that helps to gear up for the international..”

Says German Credit Abroad program leader Angela Schneider, “In school, it’s easy to lose sight of the communication goal and define your success by a grade. The first time you have to really order food or buy a stamp [abroad] is still super intimidating! Not every native speaker is willing or able to accommodate a developing accent or help you with that word on the tip of your tongue…I love being there for those moments and hearing from my students the ecstatic, ‘They understood me!!!’”

While times have certainly changed since the emergence of our first high school credit programs in 1970, learning by “living the language” experientially still lies at the heart of it all. As a Spanish credit facilitator puts it,“[Credit villagers are] not just learning grammar points. They’re not just learning cultural facts, but they’re actually living the culture.”

“I’ve definitely grown in my understanding of Chinese culture,” says one Sen Lin Hu Chinese credit villager, “but more...in my understanding as a global citizen. I study history in school, but I’ve never really delved too deeply into any other country’s culture besides American culture.

I’ve been kind of isolated from that. I think I’ve really grown in my understanding of how people act and who they really are.” A Japanese credit villager at Mori no Ike sums it up for the many villagers and staff members who have participated over the years: “My favorite parts have been… pretty much the entire thing. I really really like this program.”

DONOR SPOTLIGHT DAVID DIETRICH OPRAVA DIETRICH FELLOWSHIP FOUNDER

When asked what he most enjoyed about being on staff at Concordia Language Villages, Dietrich Fellowship Founder, and former Waldsee German Language Village Betreuer (counselor) David Dietrich Oprava responds without hesitation: “Seeing the kids enjoying themselves, running around and having a blast. It’s infectious, in a wonderful way. Just thinking, ‘this kid is so cool,’ and then seeing them grow up and becoming counselors and later maybe even leadership staff.”

During his first trip to Minnesota as a 15-year-old credit villager in the 80’s, David recalls forgetting his return ticket on the airplane and his parents asking him to take a two-day solo train trip back to the East Coast instead.

Now a poet residing in Wales and Vermont, David remembers how important it was for him to learn how to step out of his comfort zone and be able to “think on the fly.”

Being on staff was even more fun, says David, who especially enjoyed talking to counselors from different Villages at orientation as they returned from experiences in far-flung reaches of the world. He was inspired to follow suit, pursuing studies of his own abroad during his undergraduate years in both the Czech Republic and Germany. An internship in Bosnia (through the School for International Studies in Vermont) landed David in the midst of the civil war, where at the age of 22, he worked to help promote dialogue between Bosniak, Serbian, and Croatian teenagers. “They ended up teaching me about having these conversations,” he says.

While the inaugural $25,000 Dietrich Fellowship selection was delayed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the eventual impact of the fellowship

(to resume in 2021) is intended to be infectious in a much more positive sense of the word. The Dietrich Fellowship is meant “to encourage those people who are as in love with the Villages as much as I was,” says David, “and encourage them to step out of their comfort zones. They can take what they see and experience of the world and bring what they learn back as a way of investing in the Language Villages.”

Over the course of nine months, Fellows must travel to a minimum of three different continents to complete service projects, internships, or participate in other volunteer opportunities. In addition to blogging or vlogging their experience, Fellows agree to return to share their newfound skills in some way with other staff members at the Language Villages, creating what David calls “a spider web effect” of ongoing connections between people from all around the world.

It wasn’t until he moved out of his student housing in Prague, for example, that David was able to “leave the safety of the herd” and actually begin to start making connections with local Czech residents. Those people introduced him to other people, and the connections kept on going. “If you have the opportunity to do good, then do it,” says David. “You could spend the whole time snorkeling and bring that experience back, but you really grow when you endure some of the hardships that go along with making the world a better place, and you learn a lot about yourself.”

David Dietrich Oprava was a three-time credit villager, serving on staff for eight years and later as a member of the National Advisory Council. The parent of two villagers who have attended the Japanese and Spanish Language Villages, he says, “It’s great to be back, to be part of this community.”

CONCORDIA L A N G UAG E V I L L AG E S

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 twoweek 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 more than 9,000 participants enroll in immersion programs in 17 languages. Seven architecturally authentic sites on Turtle River Lake (near Bemidji, Minn.) support yearround programming for thousands of youth, adults and teachers every year.

A program of

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