Name: Pristina Koon
Project(s): LRC history timeline, LCTL enrollment
Bio: Pristina (BA’24) was a joint linguistics and Southeast Asian studies major in LSA. She began working at the LRC after her freshman year and considers it one of the highlights of her time at Michigan. She is currently pursuing her PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
My projects included working on an timeline of the history of the Language Resource Center and helping to study and promote LCTL (less commonly taught languages) enrollment. Both projects allowed me to focus on my larger interests in increasing language diversity in foreign language curriculum offerings. The timeline showcases the integral role LCTLs have played in the University of Michigan’s institutional history, and the enrollment project highlights the current offerings. Combined, they can help to increase accessibility to LCTL opportunities and, in a time when foreign language funding is threatened, illustrate the very tangible impacts language learning experiences can have on students’ lives.
The individual responsibilities I had for the timeline included going through LRC and UM archival history. This included tasks like searching through digitized Bentley records, LRC video and photo files, and historical UM course guides to create a visual map of the the breadth and growth of language learning and teaching on our campus.