Happy New Year and a huge THANK YOU for supporting our study abroad fundraiser! Thanks to your generous donations, 2016 will be a year of international adventures for students who might not have gone abroad without your support. Get updates on funding recipients and other happenings in the World Languages and Cultures department, by following us online:

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SSUworldlanguages

Twitter: @SalemLanguages

Lingua Franca Newsletter: ssclinguafranca.wordpress.com

Your generous donation will help defray the cost of international travel for our language majors and minors who plan to study abroad in 2016. Read about how study abroad has changed the lives of our students in our online newsletter "Lingua Franca": https://ssclinguafranca.wordpress.com/

Our best wishes for the new year. May your days be filled with happiness, family, friends, and new adventures!

Thanks to your generous support, we are now halfway through our month-long fundraiser and only $740 short of 50% of our goal! We want to raise $5,000 to support student study abroad experiences at Salem State. Help us get to 50% today by sharing this with your friends and colleagues and encouraging them to join us.

Jamie is a History major in the Honors Program at Salem State. He decided to participate in our Spanish Summer Program in Costa Rica in 2014, and it changed his life. After studying Spanish, learning about Costa Rican culture, and volunteering as an English teacher in an elementary school there, Jamie decided to change his career plans and pursue a career in teaching English language learners in the US. He is graduating this year and is applying for a Fulbright fellowship to study in Uruguay next year. He writes:

"It was there, in the underdeveloped region of Heredia, Costa Rica with those students at the volunteer site that I realized how lucky I was for what I had back home. This was when I decided I no longer just wanted to be a high school History teacher, but I wanted to teach ELL. My time in Costa Rica taught me the impact that culture can have on one's education. By learning about their culture and truly experiencing it on my own, I felt I not only learned Spanish but their way of life. Truly immersing oneself into the culture allows for so much more of one's own personal development."

Cristen Sullivan (SSU '14) majored in Psychology and completed minors in both French and Human Biology. She studied abroad in Lyon, France in Fall 2013 and had the opportunity to travel all over Europe. After graduation, Cristen was awarded a TAPIF fellowship from the French government to return to northern France as an English teaching assistant. There, she started her travel blog cristenenroute.com. This year, she has returned to France to work as an au pair and plans to apply to graduate schools in Belgium to pursue a Master's degree in Psychology. She writes:

"Study abroad was a life changing experience for me. I had a fabulous time, which led to new opportunities for me abroad, including the Teaching Assistantship Program in France and now a year abroad as an au pair. I would not have had any of these doors open to me if it was not for my semester abroad. I hope this fundraiser brings in many donors so other students can afford the opportunities I have been given."

Edward studied abroad in Oviedo, Spain and had these words to say about study abroad:

"Oviedo was more than an education, it was an experience. I was thrust into a culture I had never experienced, but I never felt more at home, despite the language barrier. My host family was spectacular at helping me learn the language, and the information I learned about Spain was irreplaceable. If you are nervous about going abroad, nervous you won't understand the language, you are right to feel the way you do, but you go anyway. Go in spite of those things because what you gain is invaluable. You will appreciate the life you have, the people back home, the world as a whole, and you will get to learn that Spanish."

Nathalie is double-majoring in World Languages and Cultures (French) and Psychology, with a minor in Arabic Studies. Born in the Dominican Republic, she attended Salem High School and entered Salem State in Fall 2013. This year, she fulfilled her dream of traveling to Paris, where she is studying for fall semester. She is safe and was far from the violence on November 13th. A few days after the attacks, Nathalie visited the Eiffel Tower and posted these photos showing the motto of the City of Paris projected on the structure: "Fluctuat Nec Mergitur" (Tossed by the waves, but it does not sink.). She writes of her experience:

Even with all of the events that have happened this fall and being far from my family, I am both thankful and blessed to be studying in Paris. I have experienced great things and met wonderful people.

The World Languages and Cultures department promotes active involvement and interaction in the diverse multilingual, multicultural local and global communities in which we live, with student-centered programming guided by the philosophy that language learning is a life-long process that enhances both professional and personal goals. We require all of our World Languages and Cultures majors to participate in some form of experiential learning -- community service, internships, study abroad or research -- where they must interact with native speakers of the language they are studying. We would love to see more of our students, if not all, be able to travel abroad. Help us to make this high-impact learning experience a reality for our students! Give today. Share our appeal with your friends.

Merci beaucoup! Muchas gracias! Grazie mille!