Funding Awarded for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning across Adirondacks

From skill development to Chromebooks, grants help to foster global citizenship through language

Indian Lake is one of only a few rural schools in our area to solely offer French. Teacher Jane Hinckley is pictured here with her class as they learn vocabulary and grammar through an interactive program. A grant from Adirondack Foreign Language Enhancement fund at Adirondack Foundation will help to give these kids an immersive, enriching experience in Montreal, Quebec. Image courtesy of Adirondack Foundation © Jamie McGiver

The Adirondack Foreign Language Enhancement Fund (AFLEF) at Adirondack Foundation this year awarded $58,445 in grants to 32 classrooms—from pre-kindergarten to high school—across the region.

The grants are helping French and Spanish teachers help their students acquire language skills and develop cultural awareness in the following schools: Ausable Valley, Beekmantown, Chateaugay, Clifton-Fine, Colton-Pierrepont, Crown Point, Elizabethtown-Lewis, Indian Lake, Johnsburg, Lake Placid, Lakeside (Essex), Little Peaks (Keene), Malone, Mayfield, Newcomb, Northeastern Clinton, Peru, Queensbury Union Free, Remsen, Saranac Lake, Schroon Lake, St. Agnes (Lake Placid), St. Regis Falls, Ticonderoga, Tupper Lake.

Northeastern Clinton Central School French teacher Kathleen Erin Sample is using Chromebooks to introduce sixth graders to world news and events. She wrote in her application, “It is an amazing feeling as a teacher when a student hears a piece of real life media in a foreign language that they can understand. It is an even greater feeling when they learn a nation’s culture and become more tolerant of others.”

In Ticonderoga, Spanish teacher Lynne Lenhart is building a resource library to help her students expand vocabulary and explore other parts of the world. “Through the readers and novels provided, they can explore the lives of teens in the Yucatán, Madrid, Ecuador and more,” she explained.

Funding for equipment and supplies will help St. Regis Falls Spanish teacher Jamie Leroux save time while preparing interactive notebooks designed to deepen student engagement. “Interactive notebooks engage the students tremendously, but the amount of prep work that goes into creating them sometimes discourages teachers from using them,” she wrote in her application.

Effective teachers are also lifelong learners. Grant funding will help Colton-Pierrepont Spanish teacher Kylie Pinkerton to attend a one-week Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency course in Philadelphia, PA. “I will learn the foundational skills of lesson and unit planning, assessment, assembling portfolios, literacy, classroom management, and more,” she noted.

“Across the region, the Adirondack Foreign Language Enhancement Fund is making a significant investment in our kids and teachers,” said Cali Brooks, president and CEO of Adirondack Foundation. “We are as honored to help the donors of this fund advance their philanthropic goals as we are to support foreign language teachers who bring passion and creativity to their classrooms.”

Adirondack Foundation enhances the lives of people in the Adirondacks through philanthropy. Our vision for a thriving Adirondacks is a region of unparalleled scenic beauty, where communities are strong, just and inclusive, human wellbeing, education, and economic vitality are supported, nature is protected and cared for, and arts and cultural opportunities are available to all. As the community foundation serving the Adirondack region of northern New York, Adirondack Foundation awards $3 million in grants annually and works with generous people from all walks of life to support nonprofits, schools, and municipalities. For more information, visit www.adirondackfoundation.org or call (518) 523-9904.

Adirondack Foreign Language Enhancement Fund is a component fund of Adirondack Foundation. Since 2013, this fund has awarded more than $239,000 in grants across the region. To learn more about applying for an AFLEF grant, visit www.adirondackfoundation.org/online-grants-manager/adirondack-foreign-language-enhancement-fund, or contact Program Officer Andrea Grout at (518) 523-9904 or andrea@adkfoundation.org.

To learn how you can give to AFLEF, visit www.adirondackfoundation.org.

About Adirondack Community Foundation

Love for the Adirondack region runs deep – and when your heart is captured, it forges a deep connection that can span time, family generations, and distance. It’s because of this love that we are fortunate to live, work, and play in this place, one of the most unique on the planet. It’s this very love that has fostered a spirit of generosity that has become one of the defining characteristics of the Adirondacks.

That generosity was the driving force behind Adirondack Community Foundation’s creation in 1997, when we began building charitable assets to strengthen Adirondack communities. Since then, we’ve worked with thousands of generous individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to channel philanthropy into our communities and ensure everyone who loves this place can thrive in it. Learn more at adkcommunityfoundation.org.