Luke Elliott teaches his languages

At Spring Commencement, Luke Elliott will be able to congratulate his fellow Tar Heel graduates in more than eight different languages.

Thanks to his Carolina education, he’s also sharing his knowledge with others.

His first language is English, but he can also speak German, Italian and Spanish at a high level. He is conversational in Portuguese and Russian and has practiced Norwegian and Dutch. He has also studied Swahili, Persian and a few other languages to have a basic understanding but is still working on learning to speak them.

At Carolina, Elliott took German for Educational and Community Engagement, a class that taught him how to teach languages. The course connected him with the German International School of the Triangle in Raleigh, where he is teaching German to pre-K and kindergarten students.

“I’ve developed my language skills to much higher levels, which I’m hoping to use in a long-term professional setting,” he said. “Learning to teach languages also opened an entirely different avenue than just translation and interpretation.”

Elliott says Carolina has prepared him to practice classroom management and lesson planning. He loves working with kids but would also love to teach older age groups in the future.

“It’s a different atmosphere than teaching high school or college aged students because you’re essentially trying to play with the children in the target language. It has been so fun getting to directly apply my academics to my work even before I graduate,” said Elliott.

Elliott started learning languages during his sophomore year of high school. His mom, Deidria, taught at a school in Morganton, North Carolina, where most students were Spanish speakers.

Elliott started volunteering there, and after a few months, he became proficient in Spanish. Inspired, he wanted to try integrating other languages into his learning and never stopped. His high school Spanish teacher also spoke Russian, something that piqued his interest to branch out linguistically.

“I also saw a news special or something about a teenager who spoke a bunch of languages, and I just thought, ‘Oh, I could try to do that, too,’” said Elliott.

Elliott attended Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute for one year before transferring to Carolina in 2022. A lifelong Tar Heels fan, he only ever wanted to go to Carolina, and it was the only transfer application he submitted.

“Fortunately, I made some of my best friends immediately at UNC, so it wasn’t a difficult adjustment at all,” said Elliott. “I have also really loved my academic studies, but the social side of UNC has been fantastic. I’ve made some of the best friends I could have here.”

Elliott has a busy May. Three weeks after Commencement, he’ll marry his fiancée, Maggie Vaughn, in her first year at the UNC Adams School of Dentistry. Vaughn has three years left of dental school, so they will be living in Chapel Hill. Elliott hopes to work as a language teacher during that time.

“I’m looking forward to seeing where my languages might bring me and hope I’ll be able to use them to serve others. With teaching, I would love to share the feeling I get from speaking another language with others,” said Elliott. “I have changed a lot in college. Carolina has played a large part in sharpening and developing my skills and helping me orient towards a specific career direction.”