Lourdes Morales Gudmundsson
1996 . chair
Vol. 1, No. 2
page
paris
our summer programs are growing in number. Last summer David Dudley took a group of 12 students to Paris where they studied French at the Alliance Francaise and were housed at the Cite Universitaire. Included in the package were excursions throughout Paris and to the Loire Valley. This year it appears that he will have 15 students going.
costa rica
six students accompanied Professor Morales to Alajuela's Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense (ICLC) where they took Spanish courses and participated in tours sponsored by the ICLC. Although the group is not complete as yet, it appears that there'll be ten or more going this summer. Students also explored the natural wonders of this unusual Central American nation on their own. Each student stayed with a Costa Rican family and made daily use of Spanish. Unlike almost any other country in Latin America, Costa Rica has not had an Army since it was disbanded in 1948, a fact that has contributed to the nation's political and economic stability. Ex-president Oscar Arias Sanchez received the Nobel Peace prize in 1987 for his work in bringing peace to the warring nations of the Central America of the 80s. Costa Rica boasts one of the highest literacy rates in Latin America, a product of Costa Ricans passion for education.
honduras
one spanish major, Yesenia Alvarez, participated in the Honduras program and came back excited about her life-transforming experience. The Honduras program, organized by Language and Service International in collaboration with La Sierra University and Lorna Linda University, attracts most of its participants from Lorna Linda University. However, it also features Spanish language and literature studies at the Universidad Pedag6gica Francisco de Morazan in the coastal city of San Pedro Sula. Through this program, Yesenia was able to study Central American literature with one of Honduras' outstanding young poets, Jose Antonio Funes, who has won awards and fellowships for his books of poetry.
What Yesenia found most life-changing was her community service work with the children at the Adventist school and at the orphanage. "I realized for the first time how MUCH I have and how privileged I am", she observed. For information on any of these programs, call (951) 785-2120 or 2257 and we will mail you our informational materials.
faculty facts
Florence BeUande- Robertson
since our last communication, we have lost a three-quarter position in French. Dr. Florence Bellande-Robertson became seriously ill in 1998 and requested a medical leave. Together with the enrolment drop and Dr. Robertson's declining health, which required additional medical leaves, the administration was obligated to cancel this position entirely.
I'm happy to report that Dr. Robertson is doing much better after a more than two- year struggle to regain her health. She and her husband, Maestro Jon Robertson, have moved to their home in Los Angeles to be closer to his work as chair of the Music Department at UCLA. We sorely miss Dr. Robertson and the expertise she brought to the teaching of French and Francophone literatures. However, we are confident that she will continue making important contributions in her area of expertise.
Esther Saguar
prof. Saguar has completed the course work for her doctoral studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. She is currently preparing papers to read at scholarly conferences and developing her doctoral thesis.
We are also proud and pleased to announce that she has obtained her green card and permanent residency here in the U.S. The lack of this status was complicating her travel and even her work here at LSU.
Lourdes Morales-Gudmundsson
while in Costa Rica this past summer, Lourdes Morales-Gudmundsson, chair of the MDLG Department was granted an interview with Dr. Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace laureate for his work in bringing peace to war-tom Central America. The interview, conducted in Spanish and recorded on video, will be used in the upper-division Spanish courses and in an honours course on forgiveness to be offered next year. The interview was also part of a research project for a book manuscript that deals with biblical principles of forgiveness as they interface with cultural habits and values, specifically in the context of Hispanic culture.
prof. Morales was also one of three keynote speakers at the biennial Adventist Ministries Convention sponsored by the North American Division. Her topic "Forgiveness: The Gospel for our Times" was an outgrowth of her current research on forgiveness and culture.
in january 2001, Prof. Morales was nominated Regional Vice-President of Alpha Mu Gamma for the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Her principal duties are to encourage the establishment of new chapters and reactivate dormant ones for the national foreign language honour society (see article below for details on Gamma Tau, our chapter of Alpha Mu Gamma).
this portion of our faculty news is dedicated to our invaluable contract teachers. Dr. Myrtha Pizarro continues helping us teach our SPAN 201 and 202 courses and has taught a reading and composition course for us. Born in Argentina of English/Lebonese parentage, she majored in French, Spanish, and Religion at Andrews University where she was the recipient of the Institute for International Education Scholarship. She went on to take her Master's degree at the University of Geneva, Switzerland in Pedagogy and a doctorate in Educational Administration at Loma Linda University (now La Sierra University). With her husband, Alejo, she did mission service in Brazil and currently teaches at Poly High, Riverside, and at California State University at San Bernardino. She is fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English.
Flora Joachim Milosavlevic
who has taught our SPAN 102 class comes to us with a Master's degree in Spanish/French and Education from Andrews University. She has taught Spanish and French at the high school level as well as college, and has experience working in educational, business, and health care settings across three continents. Born in Bouake, Cote-d'Ivoire of French West Indian parents, Mrs. Milosavlevic has lived in West, Central, and East America, Europe, and the United States. In addition to French, Spanish, and English, Prof. Milosavlevic handles varying degrees of fluency in Serbo- Croatian (her husband's native language) and German.
professor Ching-Ping Deborah Lin Shull has just completed a stellar stint with our department, teaching beginning Spanish courses. Born in China and raised in Bolivia, Prof. Lin Shull brought a rich cultural background to the Spanish classroom. After completing her M.A. at Cal State, San Bernardino she taught at the University of Redlands and San Bernardino Valley College before coming to La Sierra. Last year she accepted a full-time position at Claremont College. We miss Debbie's energy and high standards, and wish her well in her new place of work.
dr. Wonil Kim, professor of Old Testament in the School of Religion, has been helping us keep our Korean program viable. We are deeply grateful to him for his commitment to this fledgling program, which we hope to build on in the near future.
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