Upper School Mandarin teacher Yi-Wen Liu will serve as president of the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina beginning in the fall. 

Liu has served on the executive board of FLANC since 2016 and is currently first vice president, serving in her third year of a four-year commitment to the group’s leadership. The organization’s mission is “to promote opportunities for all students from kindergarten through post-graduate studies to develop a high level of competence in at least one language in addition to their own; to provide leadership, support and service to those committed to language learning; and to coordinate the efforts of all those involved in education to make language learning in programs of excellence a reality for all.” It was founded in 1967.

Liu is also past president of the Chinese Teachers Association of North Carolina and through her association with both groups has helped them connect across shared goals and boost participation among members. She said her leadership of such organizations provides numerous benefits.

“I am able to understand the language policy both at the state level and the national level. I also have more opportunities to network with educators from both World Languages and Dual Language Immersion fields,” she explained. “When I first started to work at Ravenscroft [in 2019], I began to champion the idea of offering the Seal of Biliteracy to our community. Although we are still at the planning phase, I was able to recommend resources for our department through FLANC and my personal connections. My hope is to continue to work on making World Language an essential subject and help bring equity to our community through language learning.”

Those connections have been particularly important to her during the pandemic and the challenges that followed.

“In the midst of great resignation, volunteering at FLANC has become a lifeline for me as an educator,” she said. “Seeing how much the fellow teachers cared about their students and how creative they were to adapt, I feel more connected to and appreciative of the education field.”

Ravenscroft’s Mandarin students have benefited as well. 

The program, led by Liu in the Upper School and by Chiu-Ping Lin in the Middle School, was recently recognized by the Chinese Language Teachers Association as one of 20 Distinguished K-12 Chinese Programs in the United States for 2023. This prestigious designation is a reflection of a number of factors examined by judges, including teachers’ extensive educational qualifications and experiences, a comprehensive curriculum design, innovative teaching approaches, diverse cultural activities, impressive teaching outcomes and positive social impact.

With the program’s success has come growth, and a third full-time Mandarin teacher, Yan Zhou, will join Liu and Lin in the fall. Learn more about Ravenscroft’s World Language programs in this Spring 2022 story from Ravenscroft Magazine, Four Innovations Boosting Learning and Engagement in World Languages.