Immersion celebration a rousing success
This past Tuesday the MAIN Immersion Celebration was held at Northrop Auditorium. MAIN — Minnesota Advocates for Immersion Network — is a non-profit organization comprised of educators that represent Minnesota’s immersion programs and University members representing CEHD’s second languages and cultures education program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) Immersion Projects.
MAIN began these events three years ago to bring together students from Minnesota’s many immersion programs to celebrate the languages and cultures they are learning. The event brought together 19 Twin Cities immersion programs representing six languages and the three types of immersion programs supported through the second languages and cultures education program and CARLA’s Immersion Projects—one-way (foreign language) immersion, with programs in Chinese, French, German, and Spanish; two-way (bilingual) immersion, with programs in Spanish/English; and indigenous immersion, with programs in Dakota and Ojibwe.
The celebration, generously supported by the University’s Institute for Global Studies, Office of International Programs, and College Readiness Consortium, was a huge success. Nearly 1,300 students were in attendance and many parents, school district personnel, and U of M faculty and administrators were there to see the show. The event was organized by a subcommittee of MAIN that was spearheaded by associate professor Diane Tedick (Curriculum and Instruction), Rachel Richardson (immersion parent, St. Louis Park Public Schools) and Megan Unger (immersion teacher, Minneapolis Public Schools).