Aminata Sylla (pictured) is the latest recipient of a Future Immersion Teacher (FIT) Fellowship, a scholarship of up to $10,000.
By Andrea DeHaan, CHaSS Communications Editor
Utah State University Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) student Aminata (Amy) Sylla is the latest recipient of a Future Immersion Teacher (FIT) Fellowship through the Albertine Foundation. FIT fellows receive up to $10,000 to complete programs of study that prepare them to teach French.
Sylla is a graduate student who is currently co-teaching at Ridgeline High School. The fellowship is helping her cover educational expenses like tuition to complete the 30-credit master’s program. Originally from the Ivory Coast, Sylla came to USU through the IELI program and had planned to study interior design before deciding instead to apply for the MSLT program.
“I was planning to teach French in the future,” said Sylla, and she thought, “Maybe this could help me.”
USU is among several universities to partner with the Albertine Foundation, a nonprofit formerly known as the FACE Foundation “dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects.” According to their website, USU is among eight universities and colleges partnering with the Foundation to help meet the demand for French dual language immersion (DLI) teachers.
"There is a shortage of DLI teachers in Cache Valley and Utah in general,” said MSLT Co-Director Ekaterina Arshavskaya. “So, this opportunity is really important [for helping] beginning teachers like Amy … afford this education."
Since its launch in 2018, three USU students — one undergrad and two graduate students — have been selected for the FIT Fellows program.
MSLT graduate James Workman was among the first round of students to benefit. He is currently a French DLI teacher at Spring Creek Middle School and said the MSLT program “really prepared” him and that the fellowship was crucial to his success.
“Dr. Sarah Gordon encouraged me to apply for the FIT Fellowship, [which] helped pay for the first year of my master’s program [before] I was hired by the Cache District … during my second year,” Workman said.
The fellowship made graduate school financially feasible, and the degree gave him “access to the tools, experience, and credentials I needed to land my current job.”
“It's one thing to learn another language and culture, but it's an entirely different thing to learn how to teach students to learn a language effectively,” he said.
According to a 2021 American Councils for International Education canvass of DLI programs in public schools, French was the third most popular language offered, behind Spanish and Chinese. Utah, moreover, is among the top five states to offer DLI programs to elementary, middle, and high school students.
Scholarships like FIT Fellows are important to the success of graduate programs like USU’s MSLT, particularly for international students like Sylla.
“Their tuition is much higher than domestic students,” said Arshavskaya. “So … we need to promote the scholarship to more students.”
According to Arshavskaya, there are numerous jobs available to graduates to help meet demand in Utah and elsewhere.
For her part, Sylla is honored to be the third FIT Fellow from USU and said she is grateful to Professor Gordon and the French Embassy staff for their assistance during the fellowship application process.
“I am thankful for [their] enormous support,” she said, “which will help me achieve my MSLT.”
For more information about the MSLT and the FIT Fellows program, please visit: https://chass.usu.edu/languages/tracks/masters-second-language-teaching
15 undergraduate English students from Logan, Vernal, and Ephraim campuses presented at the 100th Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Society Convention and won awards in three categories.
5 Questions for a CHaSS Grad highlights the awesome things our alumni go on to do. Meet Kat Webb, content director for the Aspire NSF Engineering Research Center on USU’s Innovation campus. When not working, Kat can be found playing soccer with her son, u...
