View Content #26356

CASLS would like to warmly welcome and introduce three new student interns!

Juan Carlos González Zacarias (left) is a Linguistics undergraduate student currently in the process of applying to the University of Oregon’s LTS program. For CASLS, he is working on designing Spanish language scenarios for the Intercultural, Pragmatic, and Interactional Competence (IPIC) Project. Juan Carlos is passionate about language and language education. In particular, he is always looking to give back to underserved areas of the community. As he puts it “Language creates communities, relationships between continents, and friendships. Most importantly, language is essential in our daily lives. No matter where we are from or where we live, it is the way that we all connect. Language is universal.”

Brendan Randall (right) is an undergraduate majoring in Political Science and International Studies, with a minor in Legal Studies. Brendan is also an active member of the UO Mock Trial team and the Events and Activities Representative for his hall in the university’s Residence Hall Association. At CASLS, he works on a broad range of tasks ranging from proofreading and compiling lists of academic articles to working on language skill assessments. Though not a linguist by trade, Brendan is interested in language because, “Language is the way that we prevent miscommunication and maintain a cohesive social environment. As our social environment becomes larger than it ever has before, it has become increasingly necessary to become multilingual to prevent situations where two people can't understand each other well. Further, learning a language introduces you to the culture that the language comes from and allows you to interact with it in a more meaningful way, which is both a fun and enriching experience.”

Tera Reid-Olds (middle) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature and an M.A. student in the LTS program here at The University of Oregon. For her M.A. capstone project, she is currently designing a curriculum for novice and intermediate French language students that focuses on migrant literature, and rhetoric around (im)migration in Europe. This project corresponds to her dissertation, which examines the literature of migration and exile in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. At CASLS, Tera will be working on the VAuLT project, and specifically focusing on the pragmatics of tourism culture in Italy, as well as Francophone refugee and immigrant communities in Oregon. Tera believes that “Language is central to our identities, and the ability to communicate who we are and what we need allows us to form relationships, to advocate for ourselves, and to interact with the world.”

Welcome to the CASLS team!