CETR Program Wins National Recognition

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) recognized a Duquesne program for its outstanding contributions to the field of language education.

Dr. Lucia Osa-Melero holding the Globally Engaged Program awarded to Reading to Play, Playing to Read

The Center for Community Engaged Teaching and Research’s program Reading to Play and Playing to Read was named a Globally Engaged Program 2017 at the annual ACTFL conference in Boston in November.

“I am humbled to share the Globally Engaged Program Award that Reading to Play and Playing to Read received,” said Dr. Lucia Osa-Melero, assistant professor of modern languages and literatures in the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts. “This award recognizes much heart and effort invested over the last two years.”

Osa-Melero runs the program with Adjunct Professor Carmen Alicia Martínez from the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

“According to ACTFL, this honor for our program attests to ‘the breadth and depth, the impact, and the integration into language curriculum of the community-engagement experience, as well as the quality of the community partner relationship,’ ” added Osa-Melero.

Reading to Play and Playing to Read is a collaborative agreement with the after-school program at Beechwood Elementary in Beechview and the non-profit Casa San Jose in Pittsburgh. Students enrolled in Osa-Melero’s Spanish Conversation and Composition II classes and Martínez’s Spanish for Healthcare Professionals classes at Duquesne work with Beechwood students two days a week for three weeks in the spring.

The project was developed to bridge the language barrier with students from Mexico and Central America and to help Duquesne students improve their medical Spanish speaking and writing skills.