JNCLLanguage Advocacy Day 2023

February 8-10

Virtual/Washington D.C.

SCOLT was well represented at the 2023 Language Advocacy Day with JNCL-NCLIS! Six SCOLT Board members attended the virtual event, as well as many other educators active in the SCOLT region. The Board members in attendance were Krista Chambless, Liz Lawrence-Baez, Bertha Delgadillo, Amanda Hajji Minillo, Bonnie Wang, and Leslie Baldwin.

February 8

Wednesday began with an address by U.S. Representative Mary Peltola, the first native Alaskan to serve in Congress. Her insightful interview was followed by multilingual congressional staff offering their advocacy insights, and then planning for the legislative “asks” for the next day’s meetings. See below for a summary of the legislation and funding requests that were the focus of this year’s meetings.

During the evening networking event, Ramu Damodaran, First Chief, United Nations Academic Impact, provided the keynote address. He shared a unique perspective on the opportunities for languages brought by the combination of competition and cooperation.

February 9

Congressional Visits

The focus of this day was virtual congressional visits to advocate for legislation and funding described above. LAD attendees are divided in groups by state, as each person or group visits the offices of which they are constituents. Leslie Baldwin and the rest of the North Carolina team had 6 visits: 4 with House of Representatives offices and 2 with Senate offices. The other attendees from NC team were Helga Fasciano, Bonnie Wang, Mary Pedergraft, and Yi-Wen Liu. All the meetings were positive and included productive conversations with members of the staff. Several staff members were particularly interested in the WLARA grant program, as that program aligns closely with the congress member’s goals and committees. There was also strong interest in the forthcoming World LEAP legislation and the team expects support for these initiatives from several of the offices visited.

The day of advocacy ended with the Awards Ceremony and remarks from Senator Brian Schatz and Representative Jimmy Panetta, both now leaders of the Americas Languages Caucus.

February 10, Delegate Assembly

Delegate Assembly

The Delegate Assembly is the official business meeting for JNCL-NCLIS. As Executive Director, Leslie Baldwin is SCOLT’s official delegate to JNCL.

Amanda Seewald, JNCL Executive Director, presented the 2022 Annual Report. The 2022 LAD was a successful, virtual event. The theme led to webinars and interviews conducted throughout the year. There were legislative successes with the passage of the Native American Language Resource Center Act, establishing a new resource center for Native American languages, continued funding of WLARA grants, and support for the BEST Act. Language education programs received increases in funding and the Secretary of Education, Dr. Cardona, continues to stress the advantages of multilingualism and language programs.

The budget was presented and approved. Board members were recognized for their service and a reminder was given that all official delegates can serve on various committees to further the work of JNCL.

LAD events continued with a live interview with Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education, Roberto J. Rodriguez. He spoke about his own language journey as a son of Venezuelan immigrants in the US and the need for his own children to have access to dual language programs. He spoke to goals of the Department of Education in supporting and expanding language programs, especially for heritage speakers of languages other than English and capitalizing on their language skills. Dr. Rodriguez thanked the group for their advocacy efforts and emphasized the need to continue such efforts and conversations.

After the interview there were breakout sessions with school superintendents from each region, giving their perspective on language programs and education. Afterwards, Dr. Sydnee Dickson, Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction, provided remarks.

A panel of peers spoke to ways in which advocacy can be expanded on the local and state levels.

To close the event, Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation Principal, provided the final keynote address. He described the Nation’s efforts to preserve their language and culture by caring for older Cherokee speakers by providing housing and health care. Chief Hoskin brought a unique perspective regarding native language preservation.

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