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Each May, the National Security Education Program (NSEP) and the Institute of International Education (IIE) gathers The Language Flagship community for its annual meeting. Program directors, coordinators, and university administrators join together to discuss successes, challenges, and best practices in implementing and sustaining advanced-level language learning programs.

UO Chinese Flagship team at the annual meeting.

Julie Sykes, CASLS Director notes, "The Flagship Annual meeting is a unique opportunity to bring together people from institutions across the country, all aligned around language learning for professional purposes. This year we learned about many new initiatives including K-12 programs to build proficiency early, the Technology Innovation Center (http://lftic.lll.hawaii.edu), and a large scale culture initiative. It was exciting to be part of the team of amazing educators across the country and I am looking forward to the direction of the Language Flagship."

Through a network of twenty-seven Flagship Programs at twenty-two institutions of higher education across the U.S., The Language Flagship graduates students who will take their place among the next generation of global professionals, commanding a superior level of proficiency in one of ten languages critical to U.S. national security and economic competitiveness.

NSEP selected the University of Oregon to be home of the Oregon Chinese Flagship Program in 2005. Portland Public Schools creates innovative K-12 Chinese immersion instruction for the Oregon Flagship Program, and students may continue their language learning studies at the University of Oregon, or any other Flagship Program across the country, while majoring in an academic field of their choice.

To learn more about The Language Flagship Program visit http://thelanguageflagship.org/.