The Spanish program maintains contact with its alumni by means of placement activities for new teacher candidates and follow-up to see how their own careers are progressing, in short, post-graduation professional development and support.  Spanish faculty are also available to write letters for alumni for job applications, honors, and awards.

Spanish faculty often receive requests from alumni for advice about teaching Spanish.  Alumni also contact us when they are aware of vacancies in their schools so as to try and hire good graduates from our program.  This experience is largely ad-hoc up to this point.  We hope to formalize it and track it in quantifiable terms sometime in the future.  We also do the following:  encourage graduates to present at MFLA, coaching them on their sessions; maintain contact with grads through student-teacher placements; give workshops and in-service sessions upon request in their schools; and visit schools to talk about importance of foreign languages in varied careers. Additionally we contribute to alumni reception at MFLA  faculty from the department host a table where alumni attending can come for information about current programs and activities

Faculty members themselves are supported for participation in professional conferences, such as the MFLA and others, and these contacts keep them current with new trends and ideas in pedagogy.  At the same time, our faculty are generous in sharing their own specialized knowledge with other colleagues when Spanish faculty from EMU present papers at such conferences.

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