Planning and preparation continues for the LLEAP initiative, which coordinates two new Lakota language teaching degrees at Sitting Bull College in North Dakota, and the University of South Dakota. Applications will soon be available at the LLEAP website: lleap.org. Lead administrators have now been hired: Kimberlee Campbell, PhD, will be Coordinator and Instructor at USD, while Sacheen Whitetail-Cross will be the Project Director at Sitting Bull College.
Campbell has spent decades as a teacher and coordinator of second-language teacher training programs, most notably at Harvard and Brandeis Universities. She brought her working knowledge of Lakota to the 2009-10 Lakota Summer Institute to help introduce teachers to the Level 3 textbook. Whitetail-Cross comes to LLEAP from Bismarck State College.
Planning is still underway for Lakota Language Teaching and Learning degree plans, and preparation for majors who will begin classes at their respective schools in September 2011. (So if you are interested, please register at the the facebook site and website.) LLEAP students will be on the leading edge of a new wave of dedicated professionals establishing Lakota as a linguistic heritage that can be learned and lived.
The best way to stay updated on LLEAP is to join the LLEAP Facebook site.
|
