Panel #2:
Fostering Pipelines to Heritage Learner Education
Sonia Molina Openshaw
Sonia was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Her family relocated to Maryland at the age of 18 months and has lived in the United States all her life. She is fluently bilingual in English and Spanish. Sonia has been an educator for the Provo and Alpine School District in Utah, teaching SpEd (Mild-Moderate), ESL, and Spanish.
She currently is the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Liaison for Alpine, providing families and students support based on their homelessness needs. Sonia is also a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Teaching Education program at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
N. Haʻalilio Solomon is an Instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa at the Hālau ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi ʻo Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Linguistics by focusing on the role of historical and intergenerational trauma in language revitalization.
He is an avid translator for ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi under Awaiaulu and Hoʻopulapula, and his studies involve language documentation and revitalization, as well as linguistic ideologies and attitudes surrounding ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.
He speaks several other languages as well, and his multilingualism shapes his pedagogical approach as well as his academic endeavors, many of which involve the documentation of the languages spoken in Polynesia.
Tia LeBrun is a Louisiana native and member of the United Houma Nation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a Master’s degree from the University of New Orleans.
She is currently pursuing an Education Doctorate from the American College of Education. Her drive to learn French led her to a career in education to support this heritage language both of her tribe and of Louisiana in general.
Her current position, as a district support person for world languages and immersion education, has also sparked a greater passion for learning and supporting heritage languages. She is currently growing her abilities in Spanish and Mandarin as a result of this leadership role and believes in a bilingual opportunity for all students.
Nancy Domínguez-Fret is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Nancy has taught Spanish as a heritage language at the high school and college levels.
Her research explores the experiences of Spanish heritage speakers across the educational pipeline who became Spanish heritage language teachers and how their educational experiences may inform their pedagogical practices. Nancy’s research and practice also explore the intersections of Critical Language Pedagogy and Ethnic Studies in the Spanish heritage language classroom.
She is currently the chair of the Spanish for Heritage Learners Special Interest Group in ACFTL and was recently awarded the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
