Dr. Herman Bostick, one of the founders of SCOLT, with Clarissa Adams Fletcher in 2015
“...the Foreign Language profession in the South and Nation owe a great debt of gratitude to those pioneers in foreign language education who established SCOLT and guided its destiny during the first decade. They were mainly teachers who had a vision for foreign language teaching and learning, especially in the South, and who had the courage and tenacity to make that vision a reality in the form of SCOLT. Their love and dedication to the Conference was indeed exemplary. Most of the makers and shapers of SCOLT served without compensation of any kind, the SCOLT treasury being too meager to afford such luxury and very few of their institutions, if any, provided them financial assistance. Yet there were very few meetings of the Steering Committee or the Board of Directors that did not have full attendance. The members came and they worked cheerfully in a spirit of collegiality.” - Founder of SCOLT, Dr. Herman Bostick, from Perspectives & Horizons: Dimension: Languages ‘89
Dear SCOLT Family,
These inspiring words tell me that while our world is very different from the world of 1965, the commitment and dedication of SCOLT leadership and members have remained the same. “...worked cheerfully in a spirit of collegiality...” perfectly describes the experience of being on the SCOLT Board. I’m so grateful that I’ve had the privilege of being part of a group that is dedicated to a common goal: making our world connect and communicate. Getting to know and to work with the amazing leaders who have served this organization has been one of the greatest joys and honors of my life. I researched and worked with past leaders to compile this brief history of our organization. More comprehensive detail is available in past issues of the SCOLT journal, Dimensions. In the 25th Anniversary edition, there is an article about the first 10 years written by Herman Bostick and an article by James Gates about the years from 1974-1989. In the 2010 edition, Executive Director Lynne McClendon published an article about 1990-2010. Thanks to those pioneers who set down our history and to all those who keep making it. Thank you for your contribution to our history and legacy and to our plans for the future. Pam Benton, President
The 2025 conference logo was designed by Christa Markley. Christa does the layout and design of the conference program for SCOLT each year and has designed many of the logos used by SCOLT, including the new organization logo on the opposite page which was adopted by the sponsors & patrons in 2024.
Highlights in the History of SCOLT
1964 December 6, a group of likeminded educators came together to plan a regional conference. Representatives from Emory University (GA), Atlanta University (GA), Converse College (SC), and the Georgia State Department of Education made up the group. A Steering Committee and an Advisory Committee were established.
The Steering Committee consisted of representatives from Emory University (GA), Converse College (SC), the Georgia State Department of Education, the Atlanta Board of Education, Atlanta University, Florida State University, The Women’s College of Georgia, and the Lovett Schools (GA).
The Advisory Committee consisted of representatives from the Departments of Education of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia; as well as high school teachers from Georgia and Florida, and higher ed representatives from the University of Tennessee, University of Georgia, Savannah State College (GA), University of Kentucky, Morehouse College (GA), Agnes Scott College (GA), and the University of Southern Mississippi.
1965 February 4-6, the first conference was held in Atlanta at the Atlanta Americana Motor Hotel. 1200 teachers and administrators from across the south attended the conference. Atlanta area students came in to serve as the students for teaching demonstrations.
1966 Huguette Chatagnier Kiser suggested the name Dimension for the proceedings from the first conference and the first Dimension was born.
By-Laws were drafted and incorporation was researched.
1967 By-Laws were approved and SCOLT was incorporated. SCOLT’s first residence was at Converse College in South Carolina. A Board of Directors replaced the Steering Committee and an Advisory Board replaced the Advisory Committee.
The first officers were elected:
Chair (AKA President): Louis Chatagnier (GA)
Vice-Chair (AKA President-Elect): Karl S. Pond (FL)
Secretary/Treasurer (AKA Executive Director): Elisabeth G. Epting.
Sponsors & Patrons were sought to ease the financial burden and to provide a governance structure for the conference. Sponsors paid $25 and Patrons paid $50. The goal was to have 50 sponsors and patrons and 78 signed up!
1969 The last day of the conference in Atlanta saw a blizzard hit the city, stranding many of the conference attendees for a day or two. A discussion ensued about holding the conference in October to avoid the February weather.
1970 The conference was held in Jacksonville, FL (site of our upcoming 2027 conference) and was a success.
1971 The first conference held in October to avoid the winter weather of February.
1972 ACTFL & SCOLT held a joint conference in Atlanta. ACTFL recorded the highest attendance to that date at this conference!
1973 Elisabeth Epting retired and James Gates was elected to the position of secretary/treasurer (AKA Executive Director).
1977 The first time SCOLT worked jointly with a state organization, FFLA, for a conference.
1982 Approved change from 12 to 8 members of the Board of Directors. Committees including: program, finance, exhibits, editorial, publicity were formed.
1988 Dimension transformed from a book of proceedings to a prestigious journal of refereed scholarly articles with T. Bruce Fryer and Frank Medley serving as co-editors.
1990s In this decade, four SCOLT Founders were recognized with the SCOLT Founder’s Award: Elisabeth Epting, Joanna Breedlove Crane, Herman Bostick, and Lee Bradley.
SCOLT initiated its first website in this decade as well, supported extensively by Valdosta State University. Executive Director, C. Lee Bradley and his colleague, Grady Lacy created and worked to expand the reach of this site.
1995 1st Language Study Scholarship was offered through the French Cultural Services.
1996 ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning debuted.
2000s Scholarships increased to eight with donations from the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, the French Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Cemanahuac Educational Community, the Embassy of Spain, the Goethe Institute and AATG, Estudio Sampere, Centro MundoLengua, and the Academia Latinoamericana, the Linguistics department of Equatorialis University.
2002 Maurice Cherry, President and Co-Editor of Dimension proposed that he assemble an index for the Dimension journals beginning with 1980.
2003 SCOLT Board added an “Advocacy Director” position to the board and held Advocacy Camps for member of state language organizations.
2005 ACTFL initiated the Languages Teacher of the Year award and SCOLT’s very first Regional Teacher of the Year, Ken Stewart of North Carolina, was named ACTFL’s first World Languages Teacher of the Year!
2007 Encouraged by Past President, Sue Barry, a grant was issued throughout the SCOLT region for K-12 school districts that would commit to training the entire foreign language staff to develop and use performance-based assessments (PBAs). Selected, was Richmond County School District in Augusta, Georgia. Greg Duncan, former ACTFL President and long-time SCOLT member, was selected as the project facilitator. As a result of its work, the Richmond County Foreign Language Department was tapped to make assessment contributions to the newly revised language standards for the Georgia Department of Education Web site. The culmination of this project was a presentation given by the Richmond County Foreign Language Group at the 2009 SCOLT Conference co-hosted with the Foreign Language Association of Georgia (FLAG) and the Southeast Association of Language Learning Technology (SEALLT).
Encouraged by Board Member and future (2009) President, Lynn Fulton-Archer, SCOLT began an initiative modeled after the Western Initiative for Language Leadership and supported by the Center for Applied Second Language Studies called the Southern Initiative for Language Leadership.
2010 SCOLT initiated the Friends of World Languages recognition and the Outstanding Teacher of the Year K-12 and Post Secondary was renamed Teacher of Excellence K-12 and Post-Secondary. Herman Bostick set up a scholarship incentive for first-time conference attendees to be awarded at the 2010 and subsequent conferences.
2015 Two SCOLT members nominated by the Board of Directors received ACTFL Awards: Lexington School District One in Lexington, SC received the Melba D. Woodruff Award for Exemplary Elementary Foreign Language Program, District Supervisor, Alisha Dawn Samples pictured. Carmen Scoggins from Watauga HS in Boone, NC received the ACTFL Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction using Technology with IALLT (K-12).
2019 Ken Stewart initiated the Ken Stewart Future Language Educator Scholarship. This $1,000 scholarship is intended for high school senior who plans on a career as a world language educator.
2020 The SCOLT conference, to be held in Mobile, AL, had to be cancelled less than two weeks prior to the start of the conference due to the COVID19 pandemic.
2021 SCOLT nominated Dr. Krista Chambless, who received the Wilga Rivers Award for Leadership in World Language Education (Postsecondary).
2022
Dr. Krista Chambless, President of SCOLT, was the 2022 recipient of the Excellence in Online Teaching Award from the Distance Learning SIG at ACTFL.
Dr. Leslie Baldwin, SCOLT Executive Director, was the 2022 recipient of the Supervisor of the Year Award from the National Association of District Supervisors of Foreign Languages.
2023 Vista Higher Learning initiated their scholarship which awards $1000 to one high school senior and one college student in each of the five regions who demonstrates passion, leadership, and promise as a future language educator.
Lead by President, Dr. Krista Chambless, the SCOLT Board of Directors reviewed and updated the SCOLT logo, mission, vision and the Constitution and By-Laws. The changes were approved at the Sponsors and Patrons meeting in Atlanta in March, 2024.
SCOLT’s nominated candidates won the following ACTFL Awards: Chrissy Roe won the ACTFL/ IALLT Award for Excellence in World Language Instruction Using Technology (K-12), Dr. Bobby Hobgood won the ACTFL/Cengage/IALLT Postsecondary Award for Excellence in World Language Instruction Using Technology. Dr. Mark Linsky won the Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in World Language Education (K-12).
2024—SCOLT Representative, Dr. Krista Chambless, won the JNCL -NCLIS J. David Edwards Power of Advocacy Award.
