Project Details
Hiring Manager: Dr. Pascale LaFountain, Associate Professor, World Languages and Cultures, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Total Hours: 120
Project Stipend: $3000
Project Description
The student would work closely with professor LaFountain to contribute to four main top-priority initiatives for the World Languages and Cultures Department.
- Develop Publications, Social Media, and Visibility
- In collaboration with faculty, clean up social media, and French community email listserv presence. Learn how to use Canva for social media promotion
- Assist in the organization of the 10 Language, Business & Culture interdisciplinary major events, including creating flyers, taking pictures and videos to post on social media, and helping the event go live during events.
- Write one weekly news post each for French Program and Language, Business & Culture websites and social media, including photographs, engaging Canva elements. Pieces could include, for instance: alumni and current student spotlights, highlights from events, and sneak peeks of faculty-led travel courses
- Host High School Visitors
- German and Italian Program Visit from Old Bridge High School
- Assist with communication and preparation
- Serve as guide for high school groups
- French Day
- Assist with French day workshop communication, organization, promotion, and set-up
- Help at event hosting 400 high school students
- Send out and evaluate post-event surveys of high school faculty
- Survey Beginning French Students to Measure Interests and Needs
- Learn how to use, prepare, and integrate faculty feedback on Qualtrics Survey of all French Students regarding their interests within French to help faculty continue to develop curriculum
- Prepare a mini-presentation and visit all 14 beginning French courses to solicit student participation in the survey
- Evaluate survey results, prepare a presentation, and present to World Language and Cultures faculty at a spring faculty meeting
- Implement new Montclair Career Hub for International Language Learning
- Background Information: Creation of this website, including a Career Calculator and many 1-minute videos featuring Montclair alums using their world languages in their careers was supported by a 2024 Modern Language Association grant.
- The intern would provide a usability assessment of the website and note suggestions for the faculty team that will update the website in May.
- The student would also prepare and give 10-minute interactive presentations in language courses in which they would introduce students to the website, show several 1-minute videos, have students test the career calculator, and field student responses to this career exploration.
Skill Set Developed
Many students doing a graduate degree in world languages and cultures are preparing for careers in education, cultural advocacy, and international cultural communication. Some students go on to work as international university admissions officers, as project managers at organizations such as Doctors without Borders, or as teachers in various international settings. It is essential that applicants to such positions have the ability to connect with diverse audiences, build community, advocate for language and cultural exchange, write at a high professional level, survey the needs of their organizations, use communication tools such as Canva and social media, and prepare professional presentations. The intern would hone all of these skills while collaborating with faculty and supporting Montclair programs and students in significant ways.
Key Deliverables
Major Contributions to World Languages and Cultures Priority Programming
Each of these contributions would offer significant service to the department of World Languages and Cultures, serving to boost the department’s influence on and beyond campus, the department’s responsiveness to student needs, and student awareness of career opportunities using world languages. These are all projects that the faculty would love to spend more time on if they were available.