Middlebury College Language Schools commencement Aug. 15
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - The Middlebury College Language Schools will hold commencement for the 94th summer session in Mead Chapel on Friday, Aug. 15, at 5 p.m. The ceremony will be preceded by a carillon performance by George Matthew Jr. Mead Chapel is on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125). The event is free and open to the public.
Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz and Vice President of the Language Schools, Schools Abroad and Graduate Programs Michael Geisler will award degrees to about 150 Master of Arts candidates in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. Several candidates are expected to receive doctorates in modern languages. Awards for distinguished study will also be given to select students in the schools of Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and Portuguese.
Dr. Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education (IIE), will deliver the commencement address. A leading not-for-profit organization in the field of international educational exchange and development training, IIE administers the Fulbright program, sponsored by the United States Department of State and other corporate, government and privately-sponsored programs. In January 2008, Goodman served as a panelist in the Middlebury/Monterey Institute of International Studies ConnectEd conference in Monterey.
Goodman was previously executive dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and served as Presidential Briefing Coordinator for the Director of Central Intelligence, and as Special Assistant to the Director of the National Foreign Assessment Center in the Carter Administration. He was the first American professor to lecture at the Foreign Affairs College of Beijing, and helped create the first United States academic exchange program with the Moscow Diplomatic Academy for the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs and developed the diplomatic training program of the Foreign Ministry of Vietnam.
He has served as a consultant to the Ford Foundation, the Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, U.S. Information Agency, and IBM. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of numerous books on international affairs. Goodman has a doctorate from Harvard, a master of public administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor of science from Northwestern University. He holds honorary degrees from institutions and was awarded the title of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour in 2007. Following his address, an honorary doctor of letters degree will be conferred upon him. Middlebury College guest organist Kevin Parizo will accompany the commencement procession and recession on the Mead Chapel organ.
Middlebury College Language Schools
In the Language Schools’ 94-year history, more than 40,000 students of all ages, nationalities, and from all walks of life have attended one or more of the ten schools. More than 12,000 students have earned a master’s degree or doctorate of modern languages from the Language Schools. Under the guidance of approximately 240 faculty members from institutions throughout the world, students live on campus, totally immersed in their target language.
The college offers summer sessions for ten foreign languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, as well as graduate-level French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. In 2007, the Language Schools added a master’s degree in Chinese, which students can earn in four summers at Middlebury’s Vermont campus, or in two summers in Vermont and an academic year at the Middlebury-affiliated Monterey Institute of International Studies. The Arabic and Portuguese sessions offer non-degree, graduate-level courses.
Middlebury also offers language programs at the C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad located at 30 sites in 12 countries. In 2008, the college opened the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy (MMLA), a summer language immersion program for pre-college students. MMLA is a collaboration between the Language Schools of Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a Middlebury affiliate. The four-week residential camps offer Arabic, Chinese, French and Spanish, and the inaugural sessions took place on the campuses of St. Michael’s College in Colchester; Menlo College in Atherton, Calif.; and Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., administered by Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.
For more information, contact Middlebury College Language Schools Director of Institutional Collaboration and Marketing Jamie Northrup at 802-443-5856 or jnorthru@middlebury.edu.