North Carolina high school students compete at World Languages Symposium
The symposium offers high school students in North Carolina the opportunity to engage in area studies, learn social science research methodology, use oral and written language in a practical, content-based project and participate in cooperative learning.
Ninety high school students across North Carolina participated in the third annual Learning through Languages High School Research Symposium, sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University on Dec. 13, 2017. This year’s symposium was the marquee event for the North Carolina Diplomatic Corps’ statewide Day of Multilingualism, a celebration focusing on the value of lifelong language learning.
The symposium offered North Carolina high school students the opportunity to engage in area studies, learn social science research methodology, use oral and written language in a practical, content-based project and participate in cooperative learning.
Eligible students included those studying Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian or Spanish, including heritage speakers. Students researched current issues across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa in their language of study. Participants presented original research at the symposium in the FedEx Global Education Center at Carolina and their presentations were judged by Carolina and Duke faculty, staff and graduate students.
Students competed for eight different awards, including a new Students’ Choice Award. This award, generated from feedback from prior participants, provided an opportunity for students to learn from each other’s research projects as well as meet peers from around the state. This award was presented by David Robinson, Honorary Consul for Japan.
Thirty-four teams participated from Broughton High School, C.E. Jordan High School, Carrboro High School, Chapel Hill High School, Chatham Charter School, Columbia High School, Durham Academy, East Chapel Hill High School, Eastern Guilford High School, Lincoln Charter School, Marvin Ridge High School, Myers Park High School, Parkland Magnet High School, Piedmont Classical High School, Riverside High School, Southern Wayne High School and T. Wingate Andrews High School.
The event was organized by five area studies centers at Carolina and Duke, including the Carolina Asia Center, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, UNC Center for European Studies, UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, and the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. For more information about Learning through Languages, please visit the UNC Global Area Studies website.
For a full list of winners, please visit the UNC Global website.
